THE    STORY    OF 


THE    AMERICAN    INDIAN 


HIS    ORIGIN     DEVELOPMENT    DECLINE  , 


AND    DESTINY 


BY 


ELBRIDGE    S    BROOKS 


BOSTON 

LOTHROP,  LEE  &  SHEPARD  COMPANY 


1 


.  ;C0tyB.ipH«rj  1887,   /. 

'I  V|  •%*Y*1  :  r.l  .'•' 

D.  LOTHROP  COMPANY. 


PRESS  OF 
BERWICK  AND  SMITH, 

BOSTON. 


PREFACE. 


The  popular  opinion  of  the  American  Indian  has  for  generations  been  based 
upon  prejudice  and  ignorance  —  as  thoughtless  as  it  is  unreasoning  and  unjust. 
The  red  man  of  America  may  be  no  saint,  but  he  is  at  least  a  man  and  should 
not  be  condemned  unheard.  He  has  his  side  of  the  story  quite  as  much  as 
has  his  white  conqueror. 

Desire,  acquisition,  superiority,  indifference  —  these  have  been  the  steps 
toward  the  ostracism  that  has  been  visited  upon  the  American  Indian,  denying 
him  justice  and  opportunity  for  advancement  since  the  earliest  days  of  white 
occupation.  It  is  these  barriers  to  progress  that  have  alike  created  and  com 
plicated  the  vexed  Indian  problem. 

This  volume  does  not  attempt  to  state  or  solve  that  problem.  It  simply 
seeks  to  arrange  in  something  like  complete  and  consecutive  form  the  story 
of  the  North  American  Indian  as  he  has  existed  for  generations,  and  as  from 
supremacy  in  the  land  of  his  fathers  he  has  fallen  under  the  ban  of  the  white 
civilization  that  conquered  and  displaced  him. 

The  mistreatment  of  the  Indian,  a  recent  writer  declares,  is  one  of  the 
abuses  of  the  age,  and  one  of  the  reproaches  of  civilization.  It  is  high  time 
that  the  abuse  and  the  reproach  should  give  place  to  something  like  fairness 
and  moral  sense.  If  this  story  of  a  race  that  has  played  its  part  in  the  drama 
of  human  progress  shall  lead  readers  to  exchange  indifference  for  interest  and 
contempt  for  justice,  the  labor  and  study  that  it  has  involved  will  not  have 
been  in  vain. 

A  mass  of  material  bearing  on  the  Indian's  story  has  been  consulted  and 
drawn  upon,  and  the  author  makes  grateful  acknowledgment  of  his  obligation 
to  Miss  Tracy  Thompson  of  Brooklyn  for  interested  and  painstaking  assist 
ance  in  this  direction. 

v 

.M163813 


vi  PREFACE. 

If  the  future  of  the  American  Indian  is  to  be  brighter  and  more  self- 
helpful  than  ever  before,  the  credit  of  this  advance  is  in  great  measure  due  to 
the  self-sacrificing  exertions  of  those  missionaries  of  good  who  have,  in  spite 
of  heedlessness,  and  in  spite  of  slur,  devoted  so  much  of  their  lives  to  the 
bettering  of  a  misunderstood  and  unfortunate  race. 

To  all  such,  and  to  all  friends  of  humanity  who,  despising  injustice,  seek 
to  convert  public  opinion  into  public  conscience,  this  story  of  the  American 
Indian  is  gratefully  inscribed. 

E.  s.  B. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    I. 

PAGE. 
THE    ANCIENT    AMERICAN    .  II 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE    RED    MAN    BEFORE    COLUMBUS 4O 

CHAPTER    III. 

•» 

RACE    DIVISIONS    AND    KINSHIP    TIES 59 

CHAPTER    IV. 

INDIAN    FAITHS    AND    CONFEDERATIONS 82 

CHAPTER  V. 

CULTURE    AND    COMMUNISM IO3 

CHAPTER   VI. 

THE    INDIAN    HOME IIQ 

CHAPTER   VII. 

THE    INDIAN    YOUTH 136 


viii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

PAGE. 
MANNERS    AND    MATERIALS      ..............       155 

CHAPTER    IX. 

THE    COMING    OF    THE    WHITE    MAN  .....       ,      ......       1 


CHAPTER   X. 

COLONIAL    INJUSTICE 


CHAPTER   XL 

PLACING   THE    RESPONSIBILITY     .............      2IO 

CHAPTER   XII. 

PUSHED   TO   THE    WALL       ...............      23! 

CHAPTER   XIII. 

INDIAN   TYPES  ...................      249 

CHAPTER   XIV. 
THE  INDIAN'S  OUTLOOK  280 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE. 

Quigualtanqui's  defiance Frontis. 

"  The  oldest  of  existing  lands  " 13 

Ruins  called  "  the  Governor's  house,"  Uxmal,  Yutacan 15 

Skeleton  of  the  megatherium    ...........         .16 

The  mylodon 16 

Hunting  the  dinornis 17 

An  ancient  volcano  in  the  Rocky  Mountain  range  18 

The  mammoth  and  primitive  man  19 

Primitive  household  utensils 20 

Mounds  on  the  Kickapoo  river          ...........         21 

Skull  found  in  a  mound  in  Tennessee 22 

Skull  found  in  a  mound  in  Missouri 22 

Ground  plan  of  "  high  bank  pueblo  "......         ....23 

Mound  in  the  shape  of  the  elephant 25 

Moteuczoma,  lord  of  the  Aztecs 27 

Probable  appearance  of  an  ancient  pueblo 29 

Home  of  the  "  village  Indians  " 30 

Ground  plan  of  the  pueblo  Bonito    ...........31 

In  the  grand  canon  of  the  Colorado 33 

A  cliff-dwelling 34 

Ruins  of  an  Arizona  cliff-dwelling 35 

Nature's  wonderland .         .         .         36 

The  home  of  the  ancient  American 38 

A  study  of  comparative  cranial  outlines 40 

An  Indian  myth        ....          ..........41 

Interior  of  a  partially  restored  cliff-dweller's  house 43 

Hiawatha,  the  "  river-maker." 44 

Atotarho,  the  war  chief 46 

An  Indian  village      ..............47 

One  of  Nature's  highways 50 

"  The  '  spoor '  of  the  game  " .         51 

The  wounded  buffalo 53 

The  hunted  elk 55 

Shell  ornaments  and  fish-hooks 56 

First  discoveries 57 

The  landing  of  Columbus 61 

"  Not  friends,  but  foes " .  63 


x  ILL  US  TRA  TIONS. 

PAGE. 

The  return  of  Columbus 65 

An  Iroquois  scout 68 

The  gate  of  Ladore 69 

In  the  shadow  of  Shasta 71 

A  Pueblo  boy 73 

Powhatan 76 

One  of  the  higher  types 78 

Glen  canon 79 

"  The  marvellous  white  man" 83 

"  The  spirit  of  peace" .  85 

An  Indian  myth 89 

Fighting  the  stone  giant          .                           91 

Cayote  fetich 94 

In  the  land  of  the  fetich 96 

The  Navajo  of  to-day 99 

Palisaded  Iroquois  village TOO 

In  the  Moki  land 104 

The  home  of  the  Columbians 105 

A  town  of  the  Zunis         .............  107 

White  Buffalo no 

An  Indian's  greeting 113 

"  The  White  Chief " 116 

The  domed  earth-houses  of  the  Pacific  tribes 121 

In  the  Iroquois  country 125 

An  Iroquois  long-house 127 

An  admirer  of  warlike  prowess 130 

The  Mandan  Lodge  of  the  Northwest .         .  133 

Here  I  discovered  five  pappooses  slung  to  the  trees 139 

An  education  in  drudgery 142 

Dreaming  of  his  "  medicine  " 143 

As  happy  as  a  white  baby 146 

The  scalp-dance 149 

On  the  war-trail 151 

The  ceremony  of  the  wampum  belts 157 

A  lesson  in  archery 162 

A  wampum  necklace 164 

Decorated  wampum  belts 167 

Indian  method  of  lighting  fire 168 

Navajo  basket  work 169 

Indian  weapons 171 

Council  of  chiefs  and  warriors 173 

So  the  white  man  came 177 

"  Along  the  narrow  trail  the  startling  tidings  sped  " 179 

Spanish  occupation 185 

The  death  of  his  comrade 192 

The  pitiless  man-hunter 194 

The  burial  of  De  Soto 195 

"  Killed  in  the  swamp  " 197 

"  Red  man  and  white  " 199 

Civilization  distrusts  savagery 200 

"  Doomed  and  uncovenanted  heathen  " 201 


ILLUSTRATIONS.  xi 

PAGE. 

An  episode  of  the  French  and  Indian  War 203 

"  Justice  or  war — which?" 206 

"  Ho,  Waldron  !  does  your  hand  weigh  a  pound  now  ? " 207 

"A  new  feature  in  the  Indian  landscape  " 212 

Hispaniola 215 

Colonies  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution 217 

Attack  on  stockade 221 

Military  tyranny 225 

In  contact  with  civilization 227 

An  episode  of  the  Seminole  War 233 

"  The  white  man  wanted  the  land  " 239 

Fighting  the  Indians  on  the  Virginia  frontier 240 

The  home  of  the  Indian 243 

Types  of  a  "  fading  race  " 246 

Fra  Junipero  Serro          .............  250 

The  meeting  of  the  races 253 

Charging  an  Indian  camp 257 

The  renegade  of  civilization 259 

Pocahontas  and  her  son 261 

Pontiac,  chieftain  of  the  Ottawas 265 

Te-cum-the,  chief  of  the  Shawanoe 269 

Sa-go-ye-wat-ha  the  Seneca 273 

Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiah  the  Sauk 277 

Spotted  Tail  with  his  wife  and  daughter 279 

"  His  story  is  a  simple  one  " 281 

Contact  with  a  higher  intelligence 283 

A  candidate  for  Hampton  School 285 

The  land  of  their  fathers 289 

Pack  train  leaving  a  pueblo 292 

In  process  of  civilization 294 

Darkness 298 

Daylight 299 


THE     STORY    OF 


THE    AMERICAN     INDIAN 


CHAPTER    I. 


THE    ANCIENT    AMERICAN. 


IN  the  great  past,  so  says  an 
Iroquois  legend,  Ta-rhu-hia-wa- 
ku,  the  Sky-holder,  resolved  upon 
the  creation  of  a  race  which 
should  surpass  all  others  in 
beauty,  strength  and  bravery. 
So,  from  the  bosom  of  a  great 
island,  where  they  had  previously 
subsisted  upon  moles,  the  Sky- 
holder  brought  into  the  daylight 
six  perfectly  mated  couples  who 
were  set  apart  as  the  ancestors  of  the  greatest  of  all  peoples. 
Such,  according  to  Iroquois  legends,  were  the  beginnings  of 
the  human  race;  and  the  greatest  of  all  peoples,  who  could 
look  back  to  these  six  perfect  pairs  as  their  ancestors,  were, 
presumably,  the  historic  red-men  of  America. 

Ever  since  the  modern  discovery  of  America  speculation 
has  been  rife  as  to  the  origin  and  intermediate  history  of 
the  races  of  men  that  Columbus  and  Cortez,  the  Cabots  and 


ii 


12  THE  ANCIENT  AMERICAN. 

John  Smith,  the  Jesuits  and  the  Puritans  found  upon  the 
shores  and  in  the  forests  of  the  new  world.  But  speculation 
has  led  to  little  that  is  tangible.  A  mystery  they  are,  a  mystery 
they  must  remain,  until  some  truth-grounded  plan  of  ethnolog 
ical  reasoning,  supported  by  an  undeniable  chain  of  archaeo 
logical  and  anthropological  relics,  shall  be  able  to  settle  beyond 
dispute  the  beginnings  of  a  race  whose  manners  and  customs 
suggest  those  of  every  nation  of  civilized  antiquity,  and  yet  can 
positively  be  traced  to  none. 

That  America  is  the  oldest  of  existing  lands  many  wise 
geologists  confidently  assert ;  that  a  certain  pre-historic  and 
apparent  semi-civilization  prevailed  upon  the  North  American 
continent,  hundreds  of  years  ago,  the  silent  ruins  of  giant 
mounds,  tenantless  temples  and  forest-covered  cities  indisput 
ably  attest;  that  this  possible  civilization  antedates  the  race 
of  red-men  known  to  us  and  to  our  forefathers  is  apparent. 
But  just  how  absolute  a  race  connection  existed  between  our 
historic  red-men  and  their  pre-historic  forerunners  is  still  an 
unsolved  problem.  Certain  it  is,  that  this  older  civilization, 
however  cultured  or  however  questionable  it  may  have  been 
went  down  in  ruin  before  the  resistless  assaults  of  savagery. 
As  cruel  as  they  were  barbarous  these  savage  wanderers  — 
veritable  "Huns  of  America" — decimated  and  dispersed  the 
now  unknown  builders  of  mound  and  temple  and  city ;  and,  their 
conquests  complete,  roamed  at  will  over  the  grass-grown  ruins 
they  had  made,  hunters  and  harriers  all,  until,  in  logical  course, 
an  avenging  civilization  coming  from  the  East,  made  them  in 
turn  the  hunted  and  the  harried. 

It  is  the  story  of  this  strange  and  interesting  race  —  the  red- 
men  of  North  America,  mistakenly  called  "  Indians,"  that  these 
pages  seek  to  tell. 


"THE   OLDEST    OF    EXISTING    LANDS." 


THE    ANCIENT  AMERICAN.  15 

Recent  students  of  race-characteristics  assert  that  there  is 
nothing  in  the  physical  or  mental  conditions  of  the  early 
Americans  that  should  force  us  to  ascribe  to  them  a  foreign 
origin.  Man  may  have  had  his  beginning  in  America  quite 
as  logically  as  in  Asia.  The  human  remains  that  have  been 
found  all  over  our  land,  mingled  with  those  of  what  are 


.-,,  _<    .--=ir=-> 


RUINS   CALLED   "THE  GOVERNOR'S    HOUSE,"    UXMAL,   YUCATAN. 
(Dimensions  329  feet  long,  39  feet  wide,  and  26  feet  high.) 

termed  the  antediluvian  animals  are  evidence  of  this  great  antiq 
uity.  Mammoth  and  mastodon,  mylodon  and  megatherium,  and 
others  of  the  gigantic  and  long  extinct  monsters  of  an  earlier 
world  have  left  their  bones  side  by  side  with  those  of  men 
almost  as  ancient  and  scarcely  less  intelligent  than  they. 
Hunters  and  hunted,  destroyers  and  destroyed,  these  relics  of  a 
far-distant  epoch  hint  at  a  more  positive  era  of  creation;  and 


,6  THE  ANCIENT  AMERICAN. 

so,  out  of  misty  and  uncertain  theories,  which  yet  are  worthy 
of   consideration  and   of  partial   acceptance  as  fact,    we    may 

weave  this  story  of 
the  origin  of  the 
American  Indian. 

Ages  ago  — thou 
sands,  perhaps  tens 
of  thousands  of 
years  —  a  race  of 
men  peopled  the 
valleys  and  river  bot 
toms  of  America. 
With  barely  .more 

SKELETON    OF   THE    MEGATHERIUM.  t   .  .     "         , 

than    animal    i  n- 

stincts,  knowing  enough  to  eat  and  to  sleep,  to  hurl  a  great 
stone  or  plunge  a  great  stick  in  defence  or  assault  against  the 
mighty  beasts  with  whom  they 
fought  for  existence,  this  prim 
itive  race  lived  as  nearly  an  ab 
solute  brute  life  as  it  is  possible 
for  a  human  being  to  endure. 
A  naked,  low-browed,  big-jawed, 
uncouth  race  of  men,  their  lives 
were  nothing  but  a  constant 
struggle  against  the  forces  of 
nature  that  kept  them  in  con 
tinual  fear  —  the  flood,  the  vol- 

,,  ,     ,,  ,,  THE    MYLODON    (PARTIALLY    RESTORED). 

cano,  the  tempest  and  the  earth 
quake, —  or  against  the  monstrous  forms   of   animal   life   that 
have  long  since  disappeared   from  the  plains,  the  forests  and 
the  waters  that  were  their  haunts. 


THE  ANCIENT  AMERICAN.  17 

So  from  generation  to  generation  these  first  men  lived,  with 
just  enough  of  slowly  awakening  intelligence  to  discover  that 
the  fire  that  could  burn  could  also  warm,  that  the  strength  that 
could  hurl  could  also  subdue,  that  a  sharpened  stone  could 
wound  and  cut  and  bring  about  a  speedier  death  than  one 
that  was  simply  flung  at  their  enemies  or  their  game,  and 
that  hands  were  intended  for  something  better  than  merely 


HUNIlIsG   THE 


to  hurl  or  pull,  to  cling  or  tear.  In  pursuit  of  food  they  roved 
over  the  land  leaving  their  traces  along  the  bottom  lands  of 
Western  rivers,  by  the  marshes  of  Southern  Louisiana,  in  the 
sand  stretches  of  New  Jersey,  and  along  the  broken  shore 
line  of  the  Great  Lakes. 

Gradually,  as  intelligence  grew  stronger  within  them,  they 
became  more  social  and  distinctive.  They  began  to  separate 
into  communities  and,  finding  that  shelter  from  the  elements, 
and  from  heat  and  cold,  could  be  obtained  in  the  shadow  of 


i8 


THE  ANCIENT  AMERICAN. 


overhanging  rocks,  they  learned  to  live  in  caves,  and  to  com 
bine  for  mutual  protection  or  defence  against  those  of  their 
own  kind  who  yet  remained  rovers  and  brutes.  Still  progress 
ing,  they  developed  other  faculties.  They  discovered  that 
warmth  and  comfort  could  be  obtained  from  the  skins  of 


~^^===^L~-  =£ 


AN   ANCIENT   VOLCANO    IN   THE   ROCKY    MOUNTAIN    RANGE. 


slaughtered  animals,  drawn  about  their  naked  bodies;  that 
arrow  and  spear-head,  knife  and  axe  could  be  made  of  their 
sharpened  bits  of  flint,  or  trap  or  hard  obsidian  ;  while  in  the 
great  shell  heaps  that  have  been  investigated,  and  which  are 
believed  to  be  the  house  rubbish  of  these  cave  communities 
the  rude  attempts  at  pottery,  table  utensils,  carving  and  even 
drawing  that  have  been  discovered,  show  a  sluggish,  but  grad 
ual  development  out  of  mere  brutish  living  into  something 
like  a  rudimentary  manhood. 

Savagery  and  cowardice  usually  go  hand  in  hand.  Brute 
force  and  brute  fear  are  comrades,  and  the  outgrowth  of  both 
cowardice  and  fear  is  a  desire  to  propitiate  the  person  or  the 


THE  ANCIENT  AMERICAN. 


power  feared.  A  slave  to  the  forces  of  nature  which  he  could 
not  understand  because  he  could  neither  conquer  nor  control 
them,  this  primitive  man  sought  to  propitiate  what  he  believed 
a  higher  and  un 
friendly  power. 
Propitiation  demands 
the  giving  up  of  what 
ever  is  esteemed  of 
value  by  the  sup 
pliant.  But  the  cow 
ard  can  never  consent 
to  give  himself.  He 
seeks  to  shirk  respon 
sibility  by  substitu 
tion.  From  this  came 
the  idea  of  a  personal 
offering  that  in  the 
lowest  grades  of  hu 
manity  has  always 
meant  human  sacri 
fices.  The  cave 
dwellers  of  America, 
advancing  from  the 
absolute  earth-brutality  of  their  predecessors,  turned  their  cow 
ardly  desire  to  propitiate  the  hidden  and  mysterious  powers  of 
Nature  into  offerings  and  sacrifices  of  their  enemies  or  of  their 
own  weaker  kinsman.  And  thus  was  laid  the  foundation  of 
that  sacrificial  religion  that,  at  a  later  time,  appeared  equally 
in  the  bloody  teocalli  of  the  half-civilized  Aztec  and  the  torture- 
stake  of  the  ferocious  Huron. 

Communities  beget    helpfulness.     Wherever  men  gather  in 


A 
& 


THE    MAMMOTH    AND   PRIMITIVE   MAN. 


20 


THE  ANCIENT  AMERICAN. 


groups  or  families  labor  becomes,  first,  divisible,  and  then  pro 
ductive.  Mere  herding  together  leads  finally  to  mutual  sup 
port,  and  one  need  ministers  to  another.  Agriculture,  rude 
enough  at  the  outset,  gradually  becomes  systematized,  as  the 
desires  of  the  community  increase ;  manufacture,  ruder  still, 
begins  to  assume  design  and  shape ;  and  the  more  thoughtful 
or  less  careless  workers  in  both  agriculture  and  manufacture 
begin  to  struggle  towards  something  like  definite  form  and 


PRIMITIVE   HOUSEHOLD   UTENSILS,   FOUND   IN   A  CAVE   NEAR  NASHVILLE,   TENN. 

decoration ;  while  these,  in  turn,  lead  to  a  barbaric  but  positive 
phase  of  architecture  and  of  art. 

So,  from  the  cave  and  the  shell-heap  came,  very  slowly,  the 
tent  of  skins  or  the  hut  of  boughs,  the  cabin  and  divided  lodge ; 
and  as  the  home  took  shape,  another  stage  of  progress  was 
reached. 

Communities  create  civic  strength.  Strength  means  na 
tional  growth  and  increase.  And  this  growth  and  increase 


THE  ANCIENT  AMERICAN. 


21 


develop,  as  their  natural  concomitants,  a  certain  mental  and 
moral  advance. 

Through,  possibly,  thousands  of  years  of  gradual  progress 
the  home  idea  broadened  wherever  in  communities  these  early 
Americans  lived  in  daily  comradeship  and  union.  Tent  and 
hut,  cabin  and  lodge,  grouped  together  as  settlements.  The 
settlements  became  towns  ;  the  towns  grew  into  walled  cities. 
For  rivalry  and  jealousy  have  always  had  a  place  in  the  world, 
more  marked  and  more  vindictive  in  the  lower  stages  of  civili 
zation,  than  in  either  absolute  barbar 
ism  or  the  highest  culture;  and  man 
has  ever  found  it  needful  to  raise  a 
wall  against  his  brother. 

We  are  also  to  remember  that,  in 
the  gradual  development  of  a  race, 
not  all  of  that  race  will  equally  ad 
vance.  The  wild  habits  of  our  far- 
distant  ancestors  sometimes  reap 
pear  in  us.  Man,  separated  from 
the  refining  influences  of  civilization, 

inevitably  retrogrades,  and  a  wandering  people  is  always  a 
wild  one.  The  North  American  continent  was  a  vast  and 
diversified  area  affording,  alike,  opportunities  for  settlement 
and  scope  for  the  free  life  of  a  labor-hating  tramp. 

So,  while  communities  prospered  and  increased,  and  certain 
portions  of  the  people,  growing  gregarious,  massed  themselves 
in  settlements,  other  portions,  scattering  in  families  and  bands, 
roamed  at  will  from  place  to  place.  They  lived  upon  what 
Nature  offered  them;  developed  slowly  and  imperceptibly; 
preyed  upon  other  hostile  families  or  bands ;  and,  as  their 
numbers  increased,  actually  menaced  and  attacked  the  set 
tled  communities. 


MOUNDS   ON   THE    KICKAPOO    RIVER. 


22  THE  ANCIENT  AMERICAN. 

Thus  it  was  that,  against  rival  communities,  rival  cities 
fortified  themselves;  and,  against  the  dreaded  incursions  of 
savagery,  ramparts  were  reared  and  watch-towers  were  built. 
It  is  beyond  dispute  that,  the 

" high-raised  battlement  or  labored  mound, 

Thick  wall  or  moated  gate —  " 

which,  the  poet  assures  us,  does  not  "  constitute  a  State,"  still 
does  constitute  an  admirable  defence  for  a  State,  and  this  the 


SKULL  FOUND    IN  MOUND   IN   TENNESSEE.         SKULL   FOUND   IN  A   MOUND   IN   MISSOURI. 

early  Americans  learned  from  stern  necessity  and  bitter  expe 
rience. 

Over  great  stretches  of  country  from  Western  New  York, 
west  and  southwesterly  as  far  as  the  Mexican  deserts,  but  princi 
pally  confined  to  that  central  belt  of  the  United  States  between 
the  Alleghanies  and  the  Rocky  Mountains,  may  still  be  seen 
grass-grown  mounds,  embankments  and  low  earthworks  that 
have  long  baffled  the  minutest  inquiry.  These  are  now, 
however,  believed  to  have  been  the  walls,  temple-sites  and 
foundations  of  friendly  or  rival  communities  of  the  long  ago. 


^~^L~Aiz*  18  Acres  ^=>:-pr>srr:^r-^^ 


«% 

*tt2ffc«fc£S 


GROUND    PLAN    OF     "HIGH    BANK    PUEBLO," — EMBANKMENTS   RAISED   BY  THE   MOUND- 
BUILDERS    IN    ROSS   COUNTY,    OHIO.     ,>,>-,,        ^  ,      ••  >  i 


THE  ANCIENT  AMERICAN.  25 

They  were  perhaps  cities,  towns  or  villages,  teeming  with  a 
busy  life,  and  seem  to  have  been  protected  against  each  other 
and  a  savage  foe  by  single,  double  or  triple  ramparts,  flanked 
with  watchtowers.  Within  these  ramparts  huge  altars  built 
for  bloody  sacrifices,  stood,  central  in  each,  and  the  crowding 
wooden  houses  of  chieftain,  noble  and  laborer,  set  in  orderly 
array,  were  grouped  around  the  central  temples. 

The  civilization  that  existed  fully  three  thousand  years  ago 
in  these  long-silent  cities  is  now  being  rigidly  investigated  and 


Scale  3t  feet  to  the  inch. 

MOUND    IN   THE   SHAPE  OF   THE   ELEPHANT   OR    MAMMOTH   IN    GRANT   COUNTY, 

WISCONSIN. 

slowly  read  by  the  light  of  accumulating  relics.  The  Mound- 
builders,  as  they  are  called  —  more  for  convenience  than  cor 
rectness  —  are  believed  to  have  lived  in  the  midst  of  a  civili 
zation  that  was  crude  and  uncertain,  but  strong  and  far-reach 
ing.  It  had  government,  priestcraft  and  official  station,  mili 
tary  and  home  life,  and,  growing  with  the  centuries,  finally 
culminated,  as  *. \imate,  growth  and  possible  dissension  forced 


26  THE  ANCIENT  AMERICAN. 

it  North  and  West,  in  the  great  Aztec  civilization  that  filled 
Mexico  with  empires,  cities  and  temples,  and  strewed  the  Pacific 
slope  from  California  to  Central  America  and  Peru  with  mar 
vellous  structures  that,  since  the  days  of  the  Conquerors,  have 
been  alike  a  study,  a  mystery  and  a  regret. 

It  is  not  the  design  of  this  volume  to  consider,  in  the  least, 
the  so-called  Aztec  civilization.  The  Spanish  nature,  always 
prone  to  exaggerate  —  the  priestly  records,  never  weak  enough 
to  underestimate  the  triumphs  of  the  Romish  Church,  have 
invested  the  tales  of  Spanish  conquest  with  both  the  halo  of 
romance  and  the  flavor  of  uncertainty.  Half-mythical  as  these 
relations  are  felt  by  modern  students  to  be,  even  sober  second- 
thought  is  not  yet  prepared  to  accept  the  sweeping  conclu 
sions  of  such  inconoclasts  as  Wilson,  who  not  only  discredits 
the  grandiose  stories  of  Bernal  Diaz  and  other  Spanish  his 
torians  of  the  Conquest,  but  denies  the  very  existence  of  both 
civilization  and  ruins  in  Mexico. 

The  middle  course  most  nearly  approaches  the  truth  in 
all  matters  of  speculation,  and  we  must  therefore  conclude 
that  the  semi-civilization  of  Mexico  and  Central  America  had 
existence,  power  and  influence,  and,  finally,  that  this  civilization, 
however  real  it  may  have  been,  was  the  next  stage  of  progress 
reached  by  the  Mound-builders  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  Ohio 
valleys,  and  the  highest  point  of  advancement  ever  attained  by 
the  so-called  "  Indians  "  of  America. 

It  is  probable,  however,  that  this  Southwestern  or  Mexican 
civilization  represents  the  real  progress  of  a  portion  only  of  the 
Mound-builders.  It  comprised,  possibly,  the  most  warlike,  ambi 
tious,  intelligent  and  cultivated  of  these  people.  The  remnant, 
long  a  majority  perhaps,  clung  to  their  homes  and  their  occu 
pations,  working  the  copper  in  their  Michigan  mines,  cultiva- 


MOTEUCZOMA,    LORD    OF   THE   AZTECS. 


THE  ANCIENT  AMERICAN. 


29 


ting  their  immense  elevated  farms  in  the  South,  and  moulding 
their  pottery,  or  developing  other  now  unknown  home  indus 
tries,  in  their  river  and  valley  towns.  But,  always  about  them 
raged  their  savage  and  relentless  foemen  —  the  wandering  tribes, 
the  Bedouins  of  America.  Wasted  by  the  fury  of  continual 


PROBABLE  APPEARANCE  OF  AN   ANCIENT   PUEBLO. 

and  ferocious  invasions,  and  also,  perhaps,  by  bitter  internal 
strife,  the  flourishing  communities  grew  weaker  and  weaker. 
Driven  in  time  from  the  broken  ramparts  which  they  could  find 
neither  the  time  nor  the  spirit  to  repair,  the  fleeing  inhabitants 
of  the  central  valleys  themselves  became  wanderers  and,  relaps 
ing  into  a  less  civilized  condition,  drifted  westward.  At  last, 


30  THE  ANCIENT  AMERICAN. 

after  years  of  wandering,  they  placed  the  deserts  of  the  South 
west  between  themselves  and  their  savage  foes  and  found  tem 
porary  rest,  though  a  far  less  intelligent  existence,  in  'the  adobe 
villages  which  constitute  what  the  Spanish  Americans  term 
the  "  pueblos "  of  Arizona  and  New  Mexico. 

In  these  new  homes  the  "village  Indians,"  as  they  have  been 
called,  proceeded  by  irrigation  and  untiring  labor  to  make 
the  sun-dried  plains  of  the  great  Southwest  yield  them  support 


THE   HOME   OF  THE   "VILLAGE    INDIANS." 

and  comfort.  Only  years  of  patient  toil,  however,  were  able 
to  brHg  this  result. 

Their  low-walled,  two  and  three-storied  houses,  pierced  with 
Liliputian  windows,  and  reached  by  movable  ladders,  stood 
upon  rising  terraces  or  broad  plateaus  and  overlooked  plains 
made  fertile  by  careful  ditching,  over  fields  of  waving  grain 
and  pastures  dotted  with  cattle. 

But  the  ever-constant  terror  of  savagery  found  them  even 


DD 

DD 

nn 

DD 

a 


DDDD 

aan 


D 

DD 
DD 

na 

DD 


PUEBLO   BONITO, 

Chaco  Canon. 

N.  M. 


GROUND    PLAN   OF  THE    PUEBLO    BONITO,   CHACO   CANON,   N.  M. 
}'<;  SAtinish  for  Council  Room.) 


THE  ANCIENT  AMERICAN. 


33 


here.  Ferocious  tribes  (of  which  the  Apache  of  to-day  is  a 
partial  type)  or  less  successful  members  of  their  own  wander 
ing  communities  rendered  desperate  through  failure  and  fam 
ine,  swooped 
down  upon  the 
unprotected 
"pueblos"  and 
once  again,  after 
years  of  fruit 
less  resistance, 
the  "  village  In 
dians  "  fled  to 
still  more  inac 
cessible  regions. 
Leaving  the  ex 
po  s  e  d  valleys, 
they  now  sought 
safety  higher  up 
in  the  caves  and 
fissures  of  the 
great  cliffs  that 
enclose  the  giant 
canons  of  the 
Far  West. 

These  singu 
lar  dwellings, 
the  last  refuge 
of  a  hunted  and 

helpless  people,  were  for  many  years  the  homes  of  successive 
generations.  From  their  almost  inaccessible  eyries,  reached 
only  by  steps  cut  in  the  solid  rock  or  by  baskets  drawn 


IN  THE  GRAND  CANON  OF  THE  COLORADO. 


34 


THE   ANCIENT  AMERICAN. 


A  CLIFF-DWELLING  —"THE  LAST  REFUGE  OF  A  HUNTED  PEOPLE." 


from  ledge  to  ledge,  the  Cliff  Dwellers,  as  they  are  termed, 
could  "  spy  out  all  the  land,"  guard  themselves  from  surprise 
and  prepare  to  repel  attack.  Their  pinkish  gray  houses,  one, 
two  and  three  stories  in  height,  were  built  flush  with  the  sheer 

walls  of  the 
mighty  precipi 
ces  within  whose 
crevices  they 
were  hidden. 
Far  below  them 
flowed  some 
rapid  river,  while 
here  and  there, 
on  river  lands  or  irrigated  spaces,  were  fields  of  grain  or  graz 
ing  droves  of  cattle. 

The  canons  of  the  Colorado,  the  sandstone-cliffs  of  Arizona, 
New  Mexico  and  Southern  Colorado,  still  punctured  with  these 
"  cubby-holes "  of  houses,  give  evidence  of  the  wide  extent  of 
territory  occupied  by  these  rock-perched  communities,  and  are 
proof  alike  of  the  wonderful  ingenuity  and  the  ceaseless  activity 
of  man  who  could  thus  sustain  himself  in  the  midst  of  the  most 
unfavorable  circumstances  and  surroundings. 

But,  more  relentless  than  savage  foemen,  more  tireless  than 
the  most  inveterate  human  enemy,  the  forces  of  nature  which 
terrified  and  dominated  the  first  American  came  now  to  scatter 
and  destroy  this  remnant  of  his  more  intelligent  descendants. 
The  forests  disappeared  before  the  needs  of  men  or  the  destruc 
tive  torch  of  war;  the  fearful  and  long-continuing  droughts 
which  have  ever  been  the  curse  of  that  Southwestern  country 
overcame  even  the  vigilance  of  the  cliff-dwellers.  Water-courses, 
upon  which  they  relied  for  irrigation  and  commerce,  dried  up 


THE  ANCIENT  AMERICAN.  35 

and  disappeared ;  their  fertile  fields  became  arid  and  sterile ; 
and  in  place  of  these  came  desert  and  sand-drift,  while  grain 
and  cattle  alike  were  lost.  The  poor  cliff-dweller,  who  could 
climb  to  safety  far  above  the  head  of  his  roving  foeman,  could 
not  resist  the  stern  decrees  of  nature.  Defeated  and  power 
less,  the  inhabitants  of  these  airy  fortresses  gradually  deserted 
their  rocky  homes  and,  becoming  themselves  rovers  and  Ish- 


RUINS  OF  AN   ARIZONA   CLIFF-DWELLING. 


maels,  lost  the  few  last  vestiges  of   a  partial  civilization  that 
for  centuries  their  fathers  had  developed  and  enjoyed. 

But,  as  civilization  decreased,  savagery  spread.     Coming  all 
from  one  common  stock,  the   roving  tribes   of   America  were 


THE  ANCIENT  AMERICAN. 


changed  in  manners,  customs,  speech,  stature  and  complexion 
by  climatic  and  other  causes.     Diffused  over  the  whole  North 


NATURE'S  WONDERLAND. — THE  MOUTH  OF  THE  LITTLE  COLORADO. 

American  continent  they  used  its  vast  plains,  its  hillslopes, 
leys,  rivers,  seashores,  lakes  and  forests  as  their  unfailing  store 
houses.      Alike,    conquerors    and    conquered    became    restless 


THE  ANCIENT  AMERICAN.  37 

wanderers,  hunters,  or  rude  agriculturists ;  and,  spread  thus  over 
an  immense  section,  they  lived  as  savage  proprietors  —  lords 
paramount  of  one  of  the  grandest  domains  ever  given  to  man. 

What  the  possibilities  of  primeval  America  were,  as  the 
hunting-ground  and  the  grain-field  of  a  wandering  people,  can 
be  but  faintly  conjectured.  Any  one  who  has  traversed  its  vast 
area  and  noted  its  present  fertility,  from  the  tropical  coast-line 
of  the  Gulf  to  the  valleys  of  the  great  rivers,  the  prairies  of  the 
West,  the  shores  of  the  Pacific  and  the  plains  and  table-lands 
of  the  North,  may  perhaps  imagine  what,  even  in  its  unculti 
vated  state,  must  have  been  its  resources  in  fish  and  game,  in 
fruit  and  grain. 

The  land  had  already  created  and  supplied  the  needs  of 
crowded  cities  and  of  wide-bordered  communities;  and  the  agri 
culture  necessary  to  their  subsistence,  though  neglected  and 
dissipated,  had  left  its  seeds  in  the  wildernesses  that  had  suc 
ceeded  to  the  farms  which  savagery  had  destroyed. 

The  cities  of  the  central  valleys,  the  stone-walled  pueblos 
and  the  cliff-towns  of  the  Southwest  were  tenantless,  silent  and 
overthrown,  while  over  all  the  land,  North,  South,  East  and 
West,  roamed  its  savage  possessors,  victorious  over  an  order  of 
living  they  could  neither  desire  nor  comprehend. 

Cruel,  vindictive,  brutal  and  fierce,  they  had  hunted  and 
worried,  tortured  and  destroyed,  and  had  blotted  out  an  at 
tempted  civilization  which  had  now  lost  itself  in  the  wild  life 
of  its  conquerors. 

A  religion  whose  corner-stone  was  bloody  and  merciless 
torture ;  a  life  whose  best  efforts  were  defeated  by  its  own 
incompetencies  ;  a  possible  civilization  that  had  proved  itself 
crude  and  ineffectual  because  it  had  in  it  neither  love,  pity, 
mercy,  nor  justice,  had  risen,  flourished  and  fallen.  And  now, 


THE  ANCIENT  AMERICAN. 


as  if  in  strict  accord  with  a  Divine  and  logical  plan,  its  savage 
destroyers  were  themselves  to  pass  through  a  schooling  that 
should  lead  them  out  from  savagery  into  barbarism.  By  slow 

processes  and 
natural  m  e  t  h  - 
ods  they  were 
to  be  prepared 
themselves  to 
be  confronted 
by  a  still  higher 
civilization  — a 
civilization 
more  helpful  if 
more  greedy, 
more  progres 
sive  if  more  re 
lentless,  more 
lasting  if  more 
arrogant  than 
was  the  society 
they  had  al 
ready  confront 
ed  and  over 
thrown. 

Just  why  the 
Divine  plan 
should  require 
these  stages  of 

progress  and  deflection,  of  rise  and  fall,  that  upon  the  stepping- 
stones  of  dead  states  savagery  shall  climb  only  to  be  itself  a 
step  for  other  states  to  mount  upon,  we  need  not  here  inquire. 


THE   HOME   OF   THE   ANCIENT   AMERICAN. 


THE  ANCIENT  AMERICAN.  39 

But  the  world's  history  shows  this  continual  growth,  decline 
and  fall,  and  growth  again ;  and  still  eternal  progress  leads  to 
nobler  heights. 

The  Power  that  had  impelled  the  ancient  American  out 
of  his  primitive  degradation  and  made  him  the  citizen  of  an 
incohate  but  progressive  state  was  now  to  lead  his  lapsed 
descendants  along  the  same  pathway,  and  to  use  them  as 
unconscious  but  helpful  workers  upon  the  ever-broadening 
highway  that  leads  from  savagery  to  civilization. 

So  the  student  of  race-development,  whether  he  reads  the 
stories  of  Egypt  and  of  Rome,  or  of  England  and  America, 
may  ever  find  reason  for  his  faith  in  the  world's  advance,  and 
find  himself  prepared  with  Milton  to 

"  —  assert  Eternal  Providence 
And  justify  the  ways  of  God  to  men." 


CHAPTER    II. 


THE    RED    MAN    BEFORE    COLUMBUS. 


THROUGH  just  how  many  changing  years  the  red  race,  found 
in  possession  by  European  discoverers,  lived  supreme  in  North 
America,  no  one,  as  yet,  may  truthfully  say.  The  scientist,  the 
antiquarian  and  the  ethnologist,  probing  mounds  in  Ohio,  de 
ciphering  rude  hieroglyphics  in  Vermont  or  in  Yucatan,  study 
ing  cranial  develop 
ments  in  Michigan  and 
placing  pottery  and  ex 
cavated  relics  in  chron 
ological  order,  can,  after 
all,  only  conjecture,  as 
sume  and  assert. 

Basing  a  hypothet 
ical  calculation  upon  the 
assumptions  of  recent 
theorists  it  would  seem 
fairly  safe  to  accord  to  the  North  American  Indian  a  period 
of  at  least  a  thousand  years  of  sole  possession  of  this  continent 
after  his  absolute  extinction  of  the  pre-historic  races. 

In  ten  centuries  of  existence  man  can  do  much  for  progress 
and  civilization.  Within  that  limit  had  Greece  risen,  ruled  and 
fallen,  and  Rome  from  a  mud-walled  city  of  robbers,  became, 

40 


A   STUDY    OF    COMPARATIVE    CRANIAL   OUTLINES. 

A ,  a  European  skull.     B,  a.  skull  found  at  Stimpsod  s  Mound, 

Mo.     C,  the  Neanderthal  skull.     D,  skull  from  Dun- 

leith  Mound,  III.     E,  skull  of  a  chimpanzee. 


THE  RED  MAN  BEFORE    COLUMBUS. 


first,  mistress  of  the  world,  and,  then,  the  prey  of  barbarians. 
What  could  the  red  denizens  of  the  American  forests  do 
within  that  limit  ? 

Only  the  myths  and  legends  of  the  Indian  race  can  afford 
any  answer  to  this  query.  And  that  answer  can,  at  the  best, 
be  but  vague  and  unsubstantial.  It  is  the  universal  "  we  hear 
so "  upon  which  so  much 
of  the  Indian  information 
is  founded  —  an  element 
that  was  applied  alike  to 
the  lodge-fire  legends  and 
the  misunderstood  teach 
ings  of  the 
white  mission- 
aries .  It  is 
possible,  how 
ever,  even  by 
their  imper 
fect  light,  to 

read  in  partial  form,  the  story  of  the  growth  of  the  Indian 
power  within  the  confines  of  the  North  American  conti 
nent. 

The  human  race  cannot  stand  still.  Retrogression  is  never 
final,  for  eternal  progress  is  the  Divine  law.  Savagery  must 
lead  into  barbarism,  as  barbarism  must  develop  into  civili 
zation. 

The  effects  of  climate  and  surroundings,  of  personal  contact, 
association  and  union,  and,  above  all,  the  interminglings  of 
those  ties  of  kinship  and  of  home  that  make  all  men  stable, 
would  work  with  proportionate  effect  even  upon  a  nomadic 
savage,  reared  in  slaughter  and  developed  by  destruction. 


-~^s ; 


AN    INDIAN   MYTH.  —MAKING    MAN    FROM   THE    SENOMOIZA-TREE. 


42  THE  RED  MAN  BEFORE    COLUMBUS. 

For  savagery  and  destruction  must  in  time  yield  to  a  more 
peaceful  and  ambitious  way  of  life.  Nomads  become  settlers, 
root-diggers  become  agriculturists,  hunters  become  acquirers, 
and  thus,  in  logical  course,  families  become  tribes,  tribes  be 
come  nations,  and  nations  confederacies. 

So,  by  gradual,  but  uneven  changes  the  destroyers  of  the 
older  America  became  the  denizens  and  upbuilders  of  the  new. 
They  developed  slowly,  but,  out  of  their  condition  of  chaos, 
they  really  did  evolve  a  crude  system  of  state-craft,  polity  and 
law.  Indeed,  it  may  be  asserted  that  but  for  the  coming  of  the 
white  man  the  Indian  might,  perhaps,  have  worked  out  for 
himself  a  second  though  scarcely  more  substantial  phase  of 
American  civilization. 

But  this  was  not  to  be.  The  Divine  architect  had  other 
plans,  and  the  upbuilding  of  the  real  American  civilization  was 
to  be  upon  other  foundations  than  those  of  aboriginal  savagery. 

And  yet  the  effort,  which  this  chapter  attempts  to  sketch  — • 
the  gradual  development  of  a  people  out  of  absolute  savagery 
into  a  more  orderly  though  barbaric  form  of  living,  even 
though  formulated  upon  a  hypothetical  basis  —  has  still  in  it 
enough  of  logical  cohesion  to  give  it  interest  and  force. 

Ferocity  always  rebounds  upon  itself.  For  every  act  of  sav 
agery  there  is  usually  more  reason  than  excuse,  and  the  result 
of  continued  violence  is  the  final  weakening  of  violence  itself. 
The  Romans  became  more  Grecian  than  the  Greeks  them 
selves,  the  Goths  more  Roman,  the  Normans  more  English, 
The  conquerors  of  a  nation  are  often  themselves  the  conquered, 

Inch  by  inch,  the  savagery  that  upon  the  American  continent 
had,  even  from  primeval  times,  kept  pace  with  its  crude  though 
slowly  developing  intelligence,  forced  that  intelligence  into 
terrorism  and  decline ;  but  as  it  did  so,  it  gave  to  successful 


THE   RED   MAN  BEFORE    COLUMBUS. 


43 


ferocity,  even   in  its  success,   the    first   germs   of  a  desire  for 
progress. 

Rampart  and  temple,  pueblo   and  cliff-dwelling  might,  one 
by  one,  be  left  ruined  and  tenantless,  but  the  last  stages  of  the 


INTERIOR   OF   A    PARTIALLY    RESTORED    CLIFF-DWELLER'S    HOUSE. 

so-called  early  American  civilization  overlapped  the  first  steps 
in  advance  taken  by  American  savagery. 

Even  among  the  Indians  of  a  century  ago  there  still  existed 
legends  of  the  people  who  had  been  their  predecessors  and  who, 
though  long  since  conquered,  had,  in  a  measure,  been  deified  by 
their  conquerors. 


44  THE  RED  MAN  BEFORE    COLUMBUS. 

In  Mr.  Pidgeon's  "  Traditions  of  De-coo-dah  "  is  given  the 
story  of  a  highly  imaginative  old  Indian  who  asserted  that 
he,  himself,  was  one  of  the  last  remaining  relics  of  "  the  Elk 
nation."  No  such  nation  can  be  found  among  the  Indian  tribes, 


HIAWATHA,  THE   "RIVER-MAKER." 

but  it  was,  presumably,  one  of  very  ancient  origin :    successors 
and  descendants  of  the  last  of  the  Mound-builders. 

However  much  of  fiction  there  may  have  been  in  the  mar 
vellous  tale  which  the  credulous  Mr.  Pidgeon  has  here  set  down, 
it  is  no  doubt  true  that  under  the  fiction  there  is  a  basis  of  fact ; 
and  this  basic  fact,  indeed,  is  the  origin  and  cause  of  the  count 
less  myths  and  legends  in  which  are  sketched,  not  only  the 
dwellers  in  a  forgotten  past,  but  those  less  impossible  and  more 
heroic  figures  of  Atotarho  and  Hiawatha,  common  to  so  many 


THE  RED  MAN  BEFORE    COLUMBUS.  45 

Indian  tribes.  These  latter,  indeed,  may  stand  as  the  types  of 
those  ceaseless  conflicts  between  savagery  and  progress  which 
marked  the  growth  of  the  Indian  state. 

Atotarho,  "  the  entangled  one,"  with  his  Medusa-like  head  of 
twisted,  living  snakes,  was  the  representative  of  skill,  cunning 
and  cruelty  in  war.  He  stood  for  that  baleful  spirit  of  ferocity 
and  that  open  hostility  to  improvement  that  is  to  be  found  in 
every  savage  people. 

Hiawatha,  literally  "  the  river  maker,"  represented  all  that  was 
noble,  helpful  and  progressive  in  the  Indian  nature,  His  name 
implied  intertribal  friendship,  treaty  and  peace,  and  whether  we 
meet  him  as  the  Iroquois  "  Hiawatha,"  the  Zuni  "  Po-shai-an- 
kia  "  (Father  of  the  Sacred  Bands),  the  Omaha  "  Hanga,"  or  the 
Aztec  "  Moteuczoma,"  this  beneficent  leader  of  men,  known  to 
all  the  tribes  as  the  being  sent  "  to  clear  the  rivers,  forests  and 
fishing-grounds  and  teach  the  arts  of  peace,"  may  be  regarded 
as  a  sort  of  "  composite  photograph  "  of  the  progressive  Indian. 

These  two  characters,  half  mythical,  half  possible,  represent 
the  two  most  divergent  qualities  of  Indian  life  and,  as  has 
been  remarked  by  Mrs.  Erminie  Smith,  the  myths  that  have 
accumulated  around  their  history  are  so  many  and  varied  that  it 
is  impossible  to  define  the  vague  boundary  line  separating  fact 
from  fiction. 

It  was  Atotarho  —  spirit  of  savagery  —  who  overthrew  the 
flourishing  communities  of  pre-historic  times.  It  was  he  who 
laid  waste  the  cities  and  villages,  the  farms  and  gardens  of  the 
so-called  Mound-builders  and  drove  this  less  warlike  people 
into  destruction  or  flight.  It  was  he  who,  as  leader  of  a  fe 
rocious  foe,  stormed  the  pueblos  of  the  Southwest  and  the  cliff- 
dwellings  of  the  Colorado  canons,  and  blotted  out  a  people 
whose  ruined  homes  are  now  their  only  monuments. 


46  THE  RED  MAN  BEFORE    COLUMBUS. 

For  how  many  ages  this  ruthless  influence  —  that  of  Ato- 
tarho,  the  War  Chief  —  relentless,  destructive  and  untiring, 
dominated  the  savage  American  it  is  impossible  to  determine. 
But,  even  in  its  greatest  intensity,  it  generated,  in  the  very 
satiety  of  savagery,  the  desire  for  rest  from  slaughter.  This 


ATOTARHO,  THE  WAR  CHIEF.     (From  an  Indian  drawing.) 

increased  with  the  years,  and,  as  the  devastated  sections  were 
themselves  occupied  as  occasional  homes  and  burial  grounds  by 
the  conquerors,  it  finally  developed  into  the  yearning  for  a 
more  settled  and  secure  manner  of  living,  typified  in  Hiawatha, 
the  Wise  Man,  the  Teacher,  Maker  of  Rivers  and  of  Treaties. 

It  was   Hiawatha — spirit  of   progress  —  who  induced   the 
restless   nomads  to  become  settlers  and  sojourners,  to  add  to 


AN   INDIAN   VILLAGE. — fi'rum  an  old  cut. 


THE  RED  MAN  BEFORE   COLUMBUS.  49 

their  strictly  carnivorous  bill  of  fare  the  cereal  and  vegetable 
products  of  the  land  —  corn  and  beans  and  squashes,  bread- 
roots  and  natural  fruits.  It  was  Hiawatha  who  gradually 
changed  the  rovers  into  communities  and  confederacies.  He 
taught  them  the  arts  of  peace,  led  them  into  a  clearer  form 
of  tribal  and  domestic  institutions,  and  advanced  them  from 
remorseless  savages  with  no  higher  ideas  than  hatred,  venge 
ance  and  plunder,  a  brutal  religion  and  a  bestial  appetite, 
into  those  higher  grades  of  savage  life  which  students  of 
race  development  have  denominated  the  "  middle  period  of  bar 
barism." 

Personifications  of  types  are  but  arguments  for  the  types 
themselves.  Deucalion  and  Pyrrha  in  Greece,  Visvametra  in 
ancient  India,  Men-es  in  old  Egypt  and  Jimmu  in  Japan  were 
but  the  prototypes  or  parallels  of  Manco-Capac  in  Peru,  Votan 
and  Quetzalcoatl  in  Central  America  and  Mexico,  and  Hiawa 
tha  among  the  Indians  of  the  North. 

There  is  still  another  type  noticeable.  This  is  a  hybrid  one ; 
a  seeming  compromise  between  the  vices  of  Atotarho  and  the 
virtues  of  Hiawatha,  and  compounded  of  each.  This  type  was 
known  as  Manabozo,  a  personage  who,  according  to  School- 
craft,  was  "  strong  enough  in  his  necromantic  and  spiritual 
powers,  to  baffle  the  most  malicious,  beat  the  stoutest,  and  over 
reach  the  most  cunning.  .  .  .  Whatever  man  could  do  he 
could  do.  He  affected  all  the  powers  of  a  necromancer.  He 
wielded  the  arts  of  a  demon  and  had  the  ubiquity  of  a  god." 

It  is  Manabozo,  indeed,  who,  even  more  than  Hiawatha, 
seems  to  have  been  the  inspiration  and  basis  of  Longfellow's 
now  famous  and  beautiful  Indian  poem.  He  was,  in  fact,  the 
most  popular  personage  in  the  red  man's  lodge-fire  lore.  The 
feats  portrayed  in  Longfellow's  "  Song  of  Hiawatha  "  are  those 


5° 


THE  RED  MAN  BEFORE    COLUMBUS. 


. 

ONE  OF  NATURE'S  HIGHWAYS, 


of  neither  Hiawatha  nor 
Atotarho,  but  of  Manabo- 
zo,  with  this  exception, 
that  the  poet  invests  his 
hero  with  none  of  the 
malicious  propensities  that 
are  ever  cropping  out  in 
the  Indian  tales  of  Mana- 
bozo. 

It  is  therefore  safe  to 
assume  that  in  these  three 
types  are  portrayed  the 
condition  of  the  American 
Indian  through  the  cen 
turies  that  elapsed  be 
tween  his  days  of  savage 
ry,  following  his  conquest 
of  the  pre-historic  civili 
zation,  and  the  state  of 
progressive  barbarism  in 
which  the  white  man 
found  him. 

Atotarho  was  the  fierce 
and  roving  outlaw,  hunter 
alike  of  beasts  and  men, 
brutal  in  tastes,  pitiless  in 
disposition,thoroughly  sav 
age  in  manners.  Hiawa 
tha  was  the  progressive 
Indian,  the  dweller  in  com 
munities,  with  a  growing 
acquaintance  with  agri- 


THE  RED  MAN  BEFORE   COLUMBUS.  51 

culture,  of  government  and  even  a  crude  form  of  manufac 
ture  and  of  writing.  And  between  these  stood  Manabozo, 
half-wanderer,  half-settler,  ready  to  fight  and  quick  to  be  pacified, 
swaying  now  this  way,  now  that,  toward  savagery  or  progress, 
as  surroundings  or  necessities  influenced  or  compelled  him. 

By  various  natural  highways,  up  and  down,  and  across  the 
North  American  continent,  from  the  Arctic  seas  to  the  Isthmus 


"THE  'SPOOR'  OF  THE  GAME." 

of  Panama,  and  from  the  Pacific  slope  to  the  Atlantic  seaboard, 
the  tide  of  Indian  migration  ebbed  and  flowed. 

At  first,  following  the  course  of  conquest,  westward,  savagery 
hurried  fast  upon  the  heels  of  destruction,  from  the  dismantled 
fortifications  of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  valleys  to  the  New 
Mexican  pueblos  and  the  canons  of  the  great  Southwest. 

Whenever  they  devastated  communities,  such  as  those  of  the 


52  THE  RED  MAN  BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

so-called  Mound-Builders,  these  ruthless  conquerors,  having,  as 
yet,  neither  the  needs  nor  the  inclinations  of  the  agriculturists 
by  whom  these  communities  had  been  formed,  naturally  fol 
lowed  the  track  of  their  fleeing  foe  or  the  "  spoor  "  of  the  game 
they  sought  as  food.  This,  consequently,  kept  them  westward 
for  generations. 

But  when  the  last  hunted  remnant  of  a  less  savage  past 
also  relapsed  into  savagery,  conquerors  and  conquered,  now 
merged  into  a  shifting  and  heterogeneous  mass  of  nomads  and 
Ishmaels,  swept  North  and  South  along  the  river  ways  and 
valley  lines  without  purpose  or  destination  save  the  satisfying 
of  appetite  or  the  need  for  rest.  At  times,  perhaps,  for  years 
they  would  be  held  by  the  attractions  of  promising  hunting 
grounds  upon  the  borders  of  some  treeless  plain  or  inland  sea, 
or  again,  it  might  be,  their  wandering  would  for  a  while  be 
stayed  by  the  barrier  of  some  vast  stretch  of  dense  and  impene 
trable  forest.  Then,  necessity  or  desire  would  force  them  into 
some  new  line  of  departure ;  and  so,  surging  this  way  and  that, 
the  half-million  souls  that  made  up  this  savage  mass,  without 
domestic  animals  and  with  few  even  of  the  rudest  arts  of  com 
munity  life,  drifted  about  as  need  or  inclination  led. 

The  plains  and  prairies  of  the  West  were  to  the  nomadic 
tribes  little  better  than  some  trackless  sea  or  desert.  Without 
the  knowledge  of  the  horse  or  of  any  beast  of  burden  save  their 
own  brute  selves  the  Indians  found  upon  these  treeless  stretches 
of  country  but  few  opportunities  for  subsistence.  They  were 
indeed  of  little  value  save  as  the  home  and  breeding-ground 
of  the  Indian's  greater  game  —  the  buffalo,  the  elk,  and  the 
antelope. 

It  was  therefore  in  the  valleys,  whose  rivers  gave  them  alike 
fish  and  game,  and  whose  forest-covered  slopes  afforded  shelter 


THE  RED  MAN  BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


55 


and  all  the  opportunities  for  savage  wood-craft,  that  the  most  of 
the  Indian  life  was  found. 

Drifting  farther  and  still  farther  apart,  separated  by  mountain 
chains  and  these  same  trackless  plains,  and  with  opposing 
interests  growing  out  of  the  ties  of  clan  and  kin,  the  conquerors 
gradually  resolved  themselves  into  crude  but  distinct  tribal 


THE  INDIAN'S  GAME. — THE  HUNTED  ELK. 


relations,  speaking,  upon  a  rough  estimate,  at  least  forty  dis 
similar  and  seemingly  unrelated  languages,  though  these  in 
reality  were  but  perversions  of  a  parent  stock. 

Of  all  these  natives  the  forest  Indians  seem  to  have  been 
the  most  manly  and  progressive,  far  surpassing  in  ability  and 
ambition  their  more  conservative  and  degenerate  brothers  of 
the  plains  and  hills. 

So,  gradually,  along  the  natural  highways  afforded  by  the 


THE  RED   MAN  BEFORE    COLUMBUS. 


courses  of  the  larger  rivers,  the  great  lakes  and  the  valley  of  the 
St.  Lawrence  the  Indian  path  of  migration  touched  all  the  more 
habitable  and  fertile  sections  of  the  continent  until  the  Nomads 
became  less  Nomadic  and  settled  in  comparatively  distinct  race 


SHELL  FISH-HOOKS  OF  THE  CALIFORNIA  TRIBES. 

or  clan  areas  North,  West,  South  and  East,  in  small  but  vigor 
ous  communities  all  over  the  broad  American  continent. 

Ferocity  and  feud  still  marked  the  Indian's  life.  Atotarho 
still  held  the  supremacy  in  many  a  restless  tribe ;  but,  year  by 
year,  the  nobler  Hiawatha  gained  among  his  brothers  a  firmer 
and  surer  foothold.  Clans  grew  into  tribes,  the  tribes  became 
confederacies,  and  men,  especially  those  of  kindred  language, 
became  friends  and  allies  instead  of  rivals  and  foes.  Villages, 
each  with  its  cultivated  spaces  of  corn  and  vegetables,  began  to 


THE  RED  MAN  BEFORE  COLUMBUS. 


57 


multiply,  the  war-chief  gave  place  to  the  council,  while  the  pipe- 
bowl  and  the  arrow-head,  to-day  upturned  by  the  plough  of  the 
white  man  in  fields  once  trod  only  by  the  red  man's  foot,  testify 
to  the  rude  skill  in  manufacture  which  the  Indian  once  again 
attained.  Hiawatha  was  fast  becoming  the  stronger  chief. 
Thus,  by  a  gradual  but  logical  advance,  based  upon  natural  mi 
grations,  increasing  needs  and  developing  desires,  did  the  Amer 
ican  Indians  progress  from  a  body  of  ruthless  destroyers  into 
something  like 
a  consistent 
and  kindred 
race  of  men. 

Through 
the  ages  that 
succeeded  the 
conquest  of 
pre -historic 
America,  how 
ever  or  when 
ever  this  may 
have  been 
achieved,  the 
savage  devel 
oped  into  the 
barbarian.  His 
real  progress 

had  begun.      And  thus  the   first  discoverer  from    the   distant 
East  found  him. 

The  legends  that  were  current  in  so  many  Indian  tribes,  of 
an  expected  messenger  or  visitor  from  distant  lands,  —  oki, 
manitou  or  god,  fair  of  face,  majestic  in  form  and  gifted  with 


THE   WHITE    MAN    CAME   AT   LAST. 


58  THE  RED  MAN  BEFORE    COLUMBUS. 

supernatural  powers  —  may,  perhaps,  have  a  basis  of  fact  in  the 
real  presence,  in  ages  past,  upon  American  shores,  of  some 
white  voyager  from  the  distant  East. 

Phoenician  and  Israelite,  Arabian  and  Welshman,  St. 
Thomas  the  Apostle  and  the  Irish  missionaries  of  St.  Patrick 
have  all  found  their  advocates  and  supporters  as  the  early  dis 
coverers  of  America.  Even  in  the  wildest  of  legends  may 
sometimes  lie  a  germ  of  truth.  The  white  man  came  at  last. 

Whether  this  modern  discoverer  of  America  was  Lief  the 
Northman,  or  Columbus  the  Genoese,  matters  little  to  us  here. 
But,  from  the  day  when,  sailing  across  unknown  seas,  the  broad 
banner  of  Castile  was  borne  to  the  new-found  land  a  second 
chapter  in  the  story  of  the  red  man  was  begun. 

The  Marquis  de  Nadaillac's  "  primeval  Americans  "  had  be 
come  Mr.  Carlyle's  "  copper-colored  chiefs  in  wampum."  And 
what  was  to  be  the  issue  between  the  destroyers  of  one  civili 
zation  and  the  harbingers  of  another  ? 

The  days  of  myth  and  fable,  of  misty  speculation  and  un 
certain  legends  have  passed.  From  this  time  forward  we  are  to 
deal  with  a  race  whose  chroniclers  were  their  conquerors,  and 
whose  story  has  been  told  and  retold  in  written  records  that 
yet  remain  for  our  guidance  and  information. 


CHAPTER    III. 


RACE    DIVISIONS    AND    KINSHIP   TIES. 

"  IT  is  a  fact  worthy  of  a  pause 
for  thought,"  says  Dr.  Ellis  in  his 
excellent  sketch  of  Las  Casas,  "  Pro 
tector  "  of  the  Indians,  "  that  in  no 
single  instance  since  the  discovery 
of  our  islands  and  continent  by 
Europeans,  has  any  new  race  of  men 
come  to  the  knowledge  of  travellers, 
explorers  and  visitors  from  the 
realms  of  so-called  civilization,  when 
the  conditions  were  so  fair  and  fav 
orable  in  the  first  introduction  and 
acquaintance  between  the  parties  as 

in  that  between  Columbus  and  the  natives  of  the  sea-girt  isle 
of  Hispaniola." 

Columbus  greeted  the  new-found  land  with  a  kiss.  For  the 
startled  and  wondering  natives  he  had  only  smiles  and  signs  of 
loving-kindness.  But  this  auspicious  opening  of  an  era  of 
discovery  that  was  to  give  a  new  world  to  an  old,  was  not 
destined  to  continue.  From  the  days  of  the  Great  Admiral  to 
those  of  La  Perouse  and  Vancouver,  greed,  rapacity,  and  a 
careful  disregard  of  the  rights  of  all  men  to  life,  liberty  and  the 

59 


60  RACE  DIVISIONS  AND  KINSHIP  TIES. 

pursuit  of  happiness,  have  marked  the  dealings  of  the  white 
discoverer  with  the  red  habitant. 

Columbus  himself  inaugurated  the  slave  trade.  The  very 
natives  who  had  received  him  as  a  god  were  seized  and  shipped 
to  Spain  as  "  cannibal  slaves."  "  The  ill  that  he  had  done," 
says  Dr.  Ellis,  "  lived  after  him,  to  qualify  the  splendor  of  his 
nobleness,  grandeur  and  constancy." 

So  malign  an  example  from  so  exalted  a  source  could 
scarcely  fail  to  find  imitators.  Within  less  than  twenty  years 
after  the  first  landing  of  Columbus  the  islands  comprising  the 
West  India  group  were  almost  depopulated  of  their  native 
inhabitants. 

Even  the  most  trusting  native  will  through  ill-usage  and  bad- 
faith  grow  suspicious  and  revengeful.  The  Southern  Indians 
whom  the  Spaniards  thus  foolishly  maltreated,  much  more 
gentle  than  their  brethren  of  the  North,  turned  at  last  upon 
their  tormentors.  "  Where  once  the  Indians  were  like  sheep/1 
wrote,  in  1514,  Vasco  Nunez,  commonly  called  Balboa,  "they 
have  now  become  like  fierce  lions,  and  have  acquired  so  much 
daring,  that  formerly  they  were  accustomed  to  come  out  to  the 
paths  with  presents  to  the  Christians,  now  they  come  out  and 
kill  them  ;  and  this  has  been  on  account  of  the  bad  things 
which  the  captains  who  went  out  on  the  incursions  have  done 
to  them." 

And  Spain  was  not  the  only  criminal.  Greed  for  gold  that 
sent  the  ships  of  all  the  nations  of  Europe  westward  seeking 
new  dominions  and  an  impossible  El  Dorado,  was  from  the 
very  first  linked  with  a  fatal  disregard  for  the  peoples  to  whom 
these  dominions  belonged.  Frenchman  and  Englishman, 
Dutchman  and  Swede  saw  in  the  red-man  only  a  heathen  to  be 
deceived,  overmastered  and  fleeced. 


THE    LANDING   OF   COLUMBUS. 


RACE  DIVISIONS  AND  KINSHIP   TIES. 


From  the  Arctic  Circle  to  the  Equator  wherever  an  Indian 
tribe  was  found  the  charge  of  selfishness  and  violated  faith 
must  stand  against  the  discoverers.  The  Indian  nature,  based 
upon  the  suspicion  that  is  always  fostered  by  barbarism,  grew 
still  more  uncertain,  wily  and  vindictive  as  the  native  learned 
that  the  new-comers  were  not  friends,  but  foes.  Thus  wrongly 
grounded,  the  inter 
course  between  the  red 
man  and  the  white  de 
veloped  into  a  cease 
less  warfare  between 
power  and  prejudice, 
and  this  bitter  strife 
penetrated  into  every 
section  of  -  the  great 
continent,  wherever  an 
Indian  lived  and,  after 
his  own  fashion,  did 
valiant  battle  for  his 
home-land. 

How  disproportion 
ate  must  have  been 
this  native  population 
to  the  area  occupied  recent  figures  demonstrate. 

It  has  always  been  the  custom  to  speak  of  the  red  races  of 
America  at  the  time  of  the  discovery  as  outnumbering  "  the 
sands  of  the  sea"  —  a  quantity  beyond  compute,  and  to  be  ex 
pressed  only  in  millions. 

Sober  fact,  however,  has  again  asserted  itself  and  dispelled 
all  this  exaggeration.  So  far  from  there  being  any  truth  in  the 
statement  recklessly  made  that  "  five  hundred  years  ago  it  re- 


NOT    FRIENDS,    BUT   FOES. 


64     •  RACE   DIVISIONS  AND  KINSHIP 

quired  millions  to  express  in  numbers  the  Indian  population," 
it  is  certain  that  at  that  date  the  total  number  of  Indians  in 
North  America  barely  exceeded,  if  it  even  reached,  five  hun 
dred  thousand. 

And  this  possible  half-million  was  scattered  over  the  length 
and  breadth  of  the  land  from  Hudson's  Bay  to  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  and  from  the  Everglades  of  Florida  to  the  far  north 
western  shores  of  Onalaska  and  the  Frozen  Sea. 

These  scattered  descendants  of  savage  hunters,  roving 
herdsmen,  dismantled  villages  and  fallen  civilizations,  dispersed 
over  this  vast  area  and  differing  radically  in  customs,  com 
plexion,  and  costume,  language,  stature,  laws  and  life,  had  still 
one  physical  and  one  mental  characteristic  common  to  all. 
These  were  the  straight  black  hair  and  the  "  bunch-words  "  or 
polysynthetic  speech.  These  point  to  a  common  origin,  while 
the  basic  name  given  to  themselves  by  all  the  American  tribes, 
variously  expressed  but  always  meaning  "  men,"  indicates  a 
positive  fundamental  relationship  of  blood  as  well  as  of  brain. 

Dismissing  the  first  hundred  years  of  discovery  as  too  vague 
in  both  report  and  record  for  definite  statistics  it  may  be  stated 
that  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  native 
races  upon  the  North  American  continent,  exclusive  of  Mexico 
and  Central  America,  numbered  something  less  than  five  hun 
dred  thousand  and  were  divided  into  twelve  distinct  stocks  or 
families.  An  enumeration  of  these  families  and  a  rough  outline 
of  the  sections  they  occupied  may  afford  'a  more  intelligent  idea 
of  the  composition  of  the  Indian  Races  of  North  America  than 
is  conveyed  by  the  customary  broad  generalization. 

Along  what  is  known  as  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  northward 
as  far  as  Labrador  and  the  St.  Lawrence  and  southward  to  the 
latitude  of  South  Carolina,  radiating  westward  to  points  in 


THE  GATE   OF   LADORE. —  THE   HOME   OF   THE   SHOSHONE   RACE. 


RACE  DIVISIONS  AND  KINSHIP  TIES.  67 

Illinois,  Michigan  and  even  to  the  Mississippi  a  kindred  race 
lived,  which  ethnographers  have  called  the  ALGONQUIN  family. 
Warlike,  ambitious  and  powerful  this  great  tribal  family  became 
the  most  famous  as  they  were  among  the  most  fearless  of  the 
Northern  races. 

Closely  allied  to  the  Algonquin  stock  and  touching  their 
country  in  the  region  of  Upper  Canada  and  the  Great  Lakes, 
Northern  New  York  and  the  Virginia  highlands  lived  the 
WYANDOT-IROQUOIS  family,  a  stock  that  has  furnished,  more 
than  any  other,  the  model  for  the  so-called  "noble  red-yuan  " 
of  fiction  and  of  which  the  historian  Parkman  declares  that 
"  their  ferocious  vitality,  but  for  the  presence  of  Europeans, 
would  probably  have  subjected,  absorbed,  or  exterminated,  every 
other  Indian  community  east  of  the  Mississippi  and  north  of 
the  Ohio." 

Distantly  connected,  through  the  medium  of  a  related 
language,  with  the  Wyandot-Iroquois  came,  next,  the  DAKOTA 
family,  sometimes  called  by  the  French  explorers  the  Sioux. 
Their  domain  stretched  across  the  Western  prairies  that  Iry 
between  the  Mississippi  and  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  reached 
northward  as  far  as  the  Saskatchwan  region,  beyond  Manitoba, 
and  southward  to  the  Red  River  of  Texas. 

North  of  the  territory  of  these  kindred  races,  though  inter 
secting  them  at  certain  points,  stretched  the  country  of  the 
great  ATHABASCAN  family.  Almost  all  of  what  is  now  the  vast 
Dominion  of  Canada  was  occupied  by  this  hardy  race,  whose 
trails  and  hunting  grounds  crossed  the  Arctic  Circle  into  Alaska 
and  the  land  of  the  Eskimos  and  zigzagged  the  broad  area  be 
tween  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  Hudson's  Bay. 

The  Eskimos,  with  the  natives  of  Alaska  and  all  the  inhab 
itants  of  the  far  northern  lands  from  Baffin's  Bay  westward  to 


68 


RACE  DIVISIONS  AND  KINSHIP  TIES. 


Behring's  Straits,  formed  what  is  known  as  the  HYPERBOREAN 
Race  —  the  folk  "  beyond  the  north." 

Distantly  allied  to  them,  though  with  a  completely  isolated 
language,  were  the  tribes  that  comprised  the  THLINKEET  family, 
so  called  from  their  national  name,  T'linketantukwan,  or  "men 

belonging  to 
all  villages." 
This  family  oc 
cupied  a  com 
pact  geograph 
ical  area  along 
the  northwest 
coast  from 
MountSt.Elias 
in  Alaska 
southward  to 
the  Simpson 
River. 

To  the  south 
of  the  Thlink- 
eets  was  the 
home  of  what 
have  been 
termed  the 

COLUMBIAN  Races.  This  family  occupied  the  section  now 
embraced  in  British  Columbia,  Washington  Territory  and 
Oregon. 

Northern  California  from  the  Klamath  River  to  Monterey 
was  the  home  of  a  low-grade  and  rapidly  degenerating  stock, 
which  for  reasons  of  locality  has  been  called  the  CALIFORNIAN 
Races,  while  the  other  half  of  the  great  Western  State  with  a 


AN    1RUQUUIS   SCOUT. 


- 

A  i 


THE   RETURN   OF  COLUMBUS. 


RACE  DIVISIONS  AND  KINSHIP  TIES. 


portion  of  Southern  Arizona  was  the  home  of  the  YUMA  family. 

To  the  East,  embracing  the  sections  now  known  as  Idaho, 
Utah,  and  Wyoming,  with  parts  of  Oregon,  Montana  and 
Nevada  and  the  greater  part  of  Texas,  Kansas  and  the  Indian 
Territory,  lived  the  SHOSHONE  and  PAWNEE  families,  related  as 
to  race  character 
istics  but  entirely 
distinct  as  to  lan 
guage. 

In  New  Mexico, 
closely  massed  as 
a  strictly  separate 
family  were  the 
PUEBLOS,  the  last 
remnant  of  the 
once  wide-spread 
civilization  that 
had  occupied  the 
cliffs,  the  canons 
and  the  pasture 
lands  of  the  dry 
Southwest  and 
that  went  backward  into  barbarism  before  the  combined  assaults 
of  savage  man  and  still  more  savage  nature. 

One  other  family  remains.  It  occupied  the  great  southern 
space  of  the  United  States,  from  the  Carolinas  and  Tennessee 
southward  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  westward  to,  and  includ 
ing,  Louisiana  and  Arkansas.  These  tribes,  for  purely  geo 
graphical  reasons,  have  been  denominated  the  APPALACHIAN 
Races  and  have  included  many  notable  and  interesting  types 
of  Indian  character,  such  as  Oganasdoda  the  Tsaraghee  and 
Asseola  the  Seminole. 


IN   THE   SHADOW   OF   SHASTA. —  THE    HOME   OF  THE   CALI- 
FORNIAN    RACES. 


72  RACE  DIVISIONS  AND  KINSHIP  TIES. 

Thus,  three  hundred  years  ago,  was  the  North  American 
Continent  peopled.  From  the  Arctic  Ocean  to  the  borders  of 
Mexico  —  a  region  now  under  the  supreme  control  of  the 
English-speaking  race  —  twelve  great  families  possessed  and 
divided  the  land.  All  were,  presumably,  attributable  to  a  com- 
mon  origin,  but,  when  first  known  to  the  white  man,  they  had 
for  ages  been  broken  and  subdivided  into  confederacies,  nations 
and  tribes,  warring  upon  each  other  or  bound  in  solemn  though 
oft-violated  compacts,  and  living  under  the  influence  of  manners, 
customs,  religions,  and  laws  as  foreign  to  those  of  the  nations 
who  discovered  them  as  were  the  peoples,  themselves,  an  enigma 
and  a  confusion. 

In  so  diffused  and  varied  a  people  as  were  the  native 
Americans  the  fashion  of  life  must  have  ranged  from  absolute 
lawlessness  to  some  attempted  form  of  regulated  government. 

"  Government,"  says  Burke,  "  is  a  contrivance  of  human 
wisdom  to  provide  for  human  wants."  The  fewer  the  wants  the 
less  there  must  be  of  wisdom.  Both  the  wants  and  the  wisdom 
of  the  savage  govern,  therefore,  his  position  in  the  scale  of 
progress. 

"  A  state,"  says  Major  Powell,  "  is  an  organized  group  of 
men  with  an  established  government  and  a  body  of  determined 
law."  Neither  established  government  nor  determined  law,  as 
we  understand  them,  .seem  to  have  been  existent  among  the 
American  races,  and  yet  the  tribal  relation,  common  to  them 
all,  had  as  its  central  motive  the  fundamental  idea  of  both  gov 
ernment  and  law  —  obedience  to  an  established  authority. 

Schooled  by  centuries  of  tyranny,  monarchy,  feudalism  and 
class  distinctions  to  an  entirely  arbitaray  division  of  mankind 
into  the  governor  and  governed,  the  tyrant  and  the  tyrannized, 
the  European  discoverers  of  America  brought  to  their  super- 


A  PUEBLO   BOY. 


RACE  DIVISIONS  AND  KINSHIP  TIES. 


75 


ficial  and  negligent  study  of  the  Indian  composition  their  own 
caste-ridden  notions.  Kings  and  subjects,  barons  and  vassals, 
lords  and  serfs  were  the  only  divisions  of  society  known  to 
them ;  and  king  and  subject,  baron  and  vassal,  lord  and  serf 
was  the  manner  in  which  they  read  the  Indian  fabric. 

The  reverse  was  indeed  the  case.  The  Indian  tribes  of 
North  America  were  in  greater  or  less  degree  autonomic  — 
self-governed.  And  each  tribe,  however  high  or  however  low 
it  stood  in  intelligence,  had  the  one  fundamental  idea  referred 
to  above :  obedience  to  an  established  authority. 

This  authority,  commonly  vested  in  chieftainship,  ranged 
according  to  the  composition  and  proclivities  of  the  tribe,  from 
elective  or  hereditary  chieftainship  down  to  the  strong  man 
power  that  dominates,  though  it  may  not  always  dictate,  in  the 
most  barbarous  communities. 

Broadly  speaking,  however,  the  Indian  state  in  its  higher 
form  may  be  esteemed  what  has  been  described  as  a  "  kinship 
state ; "  that  is,  according  to  one  authority,*  a  state  "  in  which 
the  governmental  functions  are  preformed  by  men  whose  posi 
tions  in  the  government  are  determined  by  kinship."  The 
"law  "of  such  a  "  state  "  regulates  marriage  and  the  rights  of 
the  several  members  of  a  body  of  kindred  and  their  duties 
to  each  other.  Individuals,  he  declares,  are  held  responsible 
"chiefly  to  their  kindred,  and  certain  groups  of  kindred  are 
held  responsible  to  other  groups  of  kindred." 

Such  a  regulation,  which  could  only  hold  in  a  family  or 
patriarchal  nationality,  will  largely  explain  the  meaning  and  ex 
tent  of  the  "  gens,"  as  they  were  called,  into  which  tribes  and 
kindred  tribes  were  divided  —  a  system  somewhat  analagous  to 
the  "  clans  "  of  the  old  Celtic  communities. 

*  Rev.  J.  Owen  Dorsey  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnography. 


76 


RACE  DIVISIONS  AND  KINSHIP  TIES. 


To  whatever  extent  we  may  bring  against  the  North  Ameri 
can  Indians  the  charges  of  ferocity  and  cruelty,  superstition  and 
duplicity,  barbarity  and  even  cowardice,  to  these  remorseless 
savages  belongs,  at  least,  more  than  to  any  other  barbarous  or 

semi-barbarous  race 
on  earth,  one  char 
acteristic  that  must 
commend  them  to 
the  better  judgment 
of  the  civilized 
world  —  itself  not 
always  above  re 
proach  in  this  re 
spect.  The  native 
North  American 
was,  and  always  has 
been,  loyal  to  the 
ties  of  kindred  and 
of  blood  relation 
ship.  "  The  sacred 
tie  of  family,"  de- 
___  __  clares  Mr.  School- 

POWHATAJT  "*"    craft,  "  is  the  great 

Jtteld  this  ft  ate  &  fflfaon  urfan  CqpX Smith 

^MimdioMmFJfiiur  fulcrum  upon  which 

lG°7  the  lever  of   hope, 

(From  an  old  print.) 

in  doing    anything 
to    raise   this   people   from    barbarism,  rests." 

In  one  of  the  numerous  inter-tribal  wars  of  the  seventeenth 
century  the  little  son  of  Bi-aus-wah,  a  famous  Ojibway  chief,  was 
surprised  and  captured  by  the  Foxes  not  far  from  the  site  of 
the  modern  city  of  Duluth.  The  news  of  disaster  reached  the 


RACE  DIVISIONS  AND  KINSHIP  TIES.  77 

father  who  knew  at  once  what  fate  was  in  store  for  his  boy.  At 
once  and  alone  he  followed  the  trail  of  the  victorious  Foxes 
and  reached  their  village  as  the  fatal  fire  was  being  kindled. 
Without  hesitation  the  old  chief  walked  boldly  to  the  place  of 
sacrifice.  "  My  little  son,  whom  you  are  about  to  burn  with 
fire,"  he  said  to  the  hostile  warriors  who  knew  him  only  too 
well,  "  has  seen  but  a  few  winters  ;  his  tender  feet  have  never 
trodden  the  war-path.  He  has  never  injured  you.  But  the 
hairs  of  my  head  are  white  with  many  winters,  and  over  the 
graves  of  my  relatives  I  have  hung  many  scalps  which  I  have 
taken  from  the  heads  of  the  Foxes.  My  death  is  worth  some 
thing  to  you.  Let  me  therefore  take  the  place  of  my  child,  that 
he  may  return  to  his  people."  The  offered  substitution  was 
accepted.  The  boy  was  carried  back  to  his  tribe,  and  the  lov 
ing  father  without  a  groan  met  his  death  amid  the  fagots 
which  had  been  set  alight  for  his  son. 

It  was  by  such  examples  of  paternal  sacrifice  as  this  that  the 
value  of  the  family  tie  was  stamped  into  the  very  soul  of  each 
new  and  rising  generation.  And  this  strength  of  kinship  was, 
naturally,  the  one  most  pronounced  result  of  the  patriarchal 
basis  of  the  American  tribes.  Respect  for  age  has  always  been 
a  leading  characteristic  of  the  Indian  nature.  The  father  of  a 
family  except  for  the  "  mother-right,"  to  be  explained  hereafter, 
was  supreme  in  his  own  lodge.  Heads  of  lodges  —  "fathers," 
as  they  were  called  —  were,  of  course,  the  ruling  spirits  in  the 
tribe.  From  them  came  the  chiefs,  the  men  of  action  and 
executive  ability.  But  the  still  older  men,  those  who  were  no 
longer  "  fathers,"  constituted  a  sort  of  post-magisterial  council 
for  the  tribe  —  veterans  who  could  caution,  suggest  or  advise 
when  they  had  grown  too  old  to  lead  or  act. 

This  patriarchal  bond  has  always  been  the  source  or  accom- 


RACE  DIVISIONS  AND  KINSHIP   TIES. 


paniment  of  a  nomadic  life.  It  is  found  in  the  Bedouin  of  to. 
day  as  it  was  in  the  Goths  of  Europe  and  the  shepherds  of  old 
Judea.  Naturally,  it  leads,  at  last,  to  a  sub-division  of  the 
original  material  as  families  enlarge,  separate  and  grow  into 

other  families.  And  out  of  this, 
with  the  American  nomads,  came, 
also  naturally,  their  division  into 
"  gens  "  or  tribes. 

So,  though  the  barbaric  state  is 
supposed  to  be  the  most  simple,  free 
and  unfettered  of  all  the  forms  of 
human  living,  it  really  becomes 
through  these  family  and  sub-family 
complications,  at  once  involved  and 
intricate,  a  puzzle  to  the  outsider, 
and  to  the  sociologist  a  problem 
worth  the  research.  A  great,  rov 
ing  people  therefore,  like  the  North 
American  race,  with  a  basis  of  mingled  superstition  and 
family  traits,  becomes  confused,  baffling  and  often  inexplicable 
to  one  who,  versed  in  the  simpler  ways  of  the  more  intelligent 
composition  of  civilized  society,  seeks  to  unravel  the  mazes 
of  a  barbaric  race. 

But,  starting  from  this  family  or  patriarchal  basis,  a  patient 
student  of  the  life  and  customs  of  the  twelve  great  sub-divisions 
of  the  original  American  stock  may  be  able  to  determine  how 
it  is  possible,  even  in  a  complexity  of  hostile  and  stranger  tribes, 
to  still  discover  in  all  a  certain  strain  of  kindred  manners,  a 
certain  similarity  of  government,  and,  alike  in  the  most  lawless 
rovers  and  the  most  advanced  confederacies,  a  certain  related 
phase  of  polity,  policy  and  law. 


ONE   OF   THE    HIGHER   TYPES. — A 
ZUNI    INDIAN. 


RACE  DIVISIONS  AND  KINSHIP  TIES.  79 

An  Indian  chief  being  once  asked  whether  his  people  were 
free,  replied,  "  Why  not ;  since  I  myself  am  free,  although  their 
chief." 

This,  in  itself,  is  an  indication  of  the  absolute  Indian 
equality.  As  before  stated,  there  was  neither  baron  nor  serf  in 
the  Indian  state.  The  power  of  the  chief  was  limited.  Ability 
always  asserted  itself ;  there  was  always  room  at  the  top.  Pub 
lic  opinion  was  the  real  governing  force,  and  in  the  tribal 


GLEN    CANON. — THE   INDIAN'S   HOMELAND. 


councils  every  lodge  had  a  voice.  Those  who  exalted  could 
also  abase,  and  a  chief  rarely  dared  go  counter  to  the  will  or  the 
demands  of  his  tribe.  He  seldom  presumed  to  dictate  as  to  the 
domestic  concerns  of  individual  lodges,  and  indeed  any  inter 
ference  by  a  chief  was  quickly  resented  by  the  father  of  a 
family. 


8o  RACE  DIVISIONS  AND  KINSHIP  iIES. 

Next  to  the  Indian's  love  of  kindred,  stood  his  affection  for 
his  home-land.  This  is  always  an  accompaniment  of  the  tribal 
life.  Dividing  between  them  a  vast  area,  aggregating  nearly 
seventy-five  hundred  thousand  square  miles,  the  twelve  great 
native  families  to  which  reference  has  been  made,  each  held 
tenaciously  the  uncertain  boundaries  that  marked  the  confines 
of  their  several  sections.  In  the  same  manner  the  nations, 
tribes  and  sub-tribes  that  constituted  these  larger  families  as 
jealously  guarded  their  several  ranges  from  intrusion. 

It  cannot  be  learned  that  any  Indian  tribe,  victorious  in  war, 
ever  appropriated  as  its  own  the  lands  of  the  defeated  tribe. 
Hostile  hunting-grounds  might  be  invaded,  but  they  were  never 
"  annexed."  And,  within  its  acknowledged  territory,  the  mem 
bers  of  a  tribe  had  equal  interest,  right  and  ownership  in  that 
territory.  There  was  no  individual  property  in  land.  The 
tribe  owned  all  that  it  held. 

Modern  theorists  who  so  strenuously  advocate  the  abolition 
of  ownership  in  land  fail  to  give  due  weight  to  the  fact  that 
personal  ownership  in  land  is  the  first  step  toward  civilization. 
The  foundation  of  the  Roman  state  was  the  heredium,  or  owner 
ship  of  one-and-a-half  acres  in  perpetuity  by  each  householder ; 
and  it  is  certain  that,  as  national  progress  is  largely  based  upon 
personal  proprietorship,  so  barbarism  clings  to  the  idea  of  a  com 
mon  property.  The  Indian  was  as  tenacious  of  his  tribal  rights 
to  the  tribal  lands  as  he  was  careless  of  his  individual  possession 
beyond  the  shadow  of  his  own  lodge  poles. 

Upon  these  two  fundamental  principles  therefore  —  love  of 
kindred  and  love  of  home  land  —  was  the  native  American 
race  firmly  grounded.  And  it  is  these  two  characteristics  that, 
from  the  days  of  the  first  discoverers  until  now,  the  English, 
Colonial,  and  the  United  States  Governments  have  been  com- 


RACE  DIVISIONS  AND  KINSHIP  TIES.  81 

pelled  to  combat  or  respect.  The  natural  reluctance  of  so 
tenacious  a  people  to  abandon  these  ties  of  ancestry  and  land 
has,  by  its  very  recognition  by  the  government,  been  the  cause 
of  a  complicated  system  of  treaty  relations ;  and  these  as  a 
recent  writer  declares,  have  "  undoubtedly  been  the  greatest 
stumbling-block  in  the  way  of  the  Indian's  advancement  to 
civilization  and  citizenship." 

Even  a  virtue  may  be  wrongly  directed.  Personal  prefer 
ences  or  prejudices  should  never  be  permitted  to  militate  against 
the  general  good.  As  American  citizenship  seems  the  only 
logical  settlement  for  the  so-called  Indian  problem,  there  are 
those  even  among  the  friends  of  the  Indian  who  hold  that  "only 
by  a  movement  toward  the  disintegration  of  the  tribes  "  can  be 
secured  that  citizenship  which  shall  make  them  no  longer  aliens 
but  units  in  an  undivided  nation. 

It  is  of  value,  however,  to  remember,  as  we  seek  to  read  con 
sistently  the  story  of  the  American  Indian,  that  the  fabric  of 
that  story  has  been  determined  and  developed  by  the  unalterable 
tenacity  with  which,  through  full  three  hundred  years  of  alternate 
war  and  peace,  he  has  clung  to  those  characteristics  that  lie  at 
the  foundation  of  the  Indian  nature  —  the  love  of  kindred  and 
the  love  of  his  home-land. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


INDIAN    FAITHS    AND    CONFEDERATIONS. 


WHEN  the  discoverers  of  America 
first  touched  upon,  or  journeyed  into 
the  new-found  lands,  Spaniard  and 
Frenchman,  Englishman  and  Dutch 
man  encountered  the  representatives  of 
a  people  peculiarly  fitted  to  be  either 
moulded  or  marred. 

The  savage  mind  is  essentially  child 
like.  It  receives  and  appropriates  new 
ideas  in  faith  or  in  diplomacy  in  the 
broad  sense  of  a  general  receptiveness 
and  engrafts  them  upon  such  a  basis 
of  belief,  conjecture  or  superstition  as 
fill  the  heart  alike  of  savage  and  o" 
child. 

"  Had  I  been  there  with  my  Franks,"  said  Clovis  the  Pagai, 
king,  when  the  Bishop  Remi  told  him  of  the  death  of  the 
divine  sufferer  on  Calvary,  "  I  would  have  taught  those  Jews  a 
lesson."  "Why  did  you  baptize  this  Iroquois  ?"  asked  a  Huron 
convert  of  Gamier,  the  Jesuit,  who  had  just  performed  his 
sacred  office  upon  a  dying  captive ;  "  he  will  get  to  heaven 

before  us,  and  when  he  sees  us  coming  he  will  drive  us  out." 

82 


INDIAN    FAITHS    AND     CONFEDERATIONS. 


The  savage  of  every  land  is  a  literalist  at  heart,  however 
much  of  an  idealist  he  may  be  in  thought,  and  in  his  treat 
ment  of  new  theories  he  is  as  full  of  unreasoning  imitation  as 
is  a  child  with  a  new  doll. 

Before  the  white  man  came  with  his  peremptory  but  diverse 
statements  of  the  same  general  truth  the  North  American  In 
dians  throughout  all  their  broad  area  of  occupation,  held  with 
almost  unvarying  unanimity  the  same  generic  form  of  religious 
belief  —  if  that  may  be 
deemed  religion  or  be 
lief  which  was  mainly 
superstitious  fear  em 
bodied  in  a  worship  of 
symbols. 

This  worship  indeed 
was  little  more  than  a 
sort  of  primitive  phil 
osophy  such  as  always 
rules  the  life  of  man 
in  the  childhood  of  the 
world.  "  All  things  liv 


ing    or    moving,     says 
Prof.  Tiele,  "or   start- 
ling  him  by  something 
strange   and  extraordi 
nary,  and  of   which  he  does  not  know  the  natural  causes,  he 
ascribes  to  the  working  of  mighty  spirits,  moving  freely  through 
earth  and  air  and,  taking   up   their  abode   either   temporarily 
or  permanently  in  some  living  or  some  lifeless  object." 

Deriving  from  their  common,  primeval  ancestor,  the  first 
American,  this  fear  of  natural  phenomena  the  Indian  had  no 
conception  of  a  central  governing  omnipotence  or  deity. 


THE   MARVELLOUS  WHITE   MAN." 


84  INDIAN  FAITHS  AND   CONFEDERATIONS. 

Mrs.  Erminie  A.  Smith,  whose  long  residence  among  the 
Indians  gives  especial  force  to  her  statements,  emphatically 
asserts  that  "  the  '  Great  Spirit '  so  popularly  and  poetically 
known  as  the  god  of  the  red  man,  and  the  *  Happy  Hunting 
Ground,'  generally  reported  to  be  the  Indian's  idea  of  a  future 
state,  are  both  of  them  but  their  ready  conception  of  the  white 
man's  God  and  heaven." 

"In  no  Indian  language,"  says  Mr.  Parkman,  "could  the 
early  missionaries  find  a  word  to  express  the  idea  of  God. 
Manitou  and  Oki  meant  anything  endowed  with  supernatural 
powers." 

The  Indian,  therefore,  deified  or,  rather,  personified  those 
forces  of  nature  that  ever  surrounded  him,  expressing  them  in 
the  corresponding  types  of  animal  life  with  which  he  came  in 
daily  contact,  but  which,  also,  he  could  not  understand. 

The  most  assertive  natural  forces  were  the  strongest  in  per 
sonification.  The  thunder  in  the  North,  and  the  sun  in  the 
South  seem  to  have  held  precedence  over  all  other  spirits,  while 
both  at  the  North  and  the  South,  alike  among  the  Algonquins 
of  Canada  and  the  Aztecs  of  Mexico,  the  four  mythical 
"brothers  "  —  the  winds  —  were  objects  of  peculiar  veneration. 

To  the  imaginative  Indian, 

"whose  untutored  mind 
Sees  God  in  clouds,  or  hears  him  in   the  wind," 

the  birds  symbolized  the  winds  as  with  strong  and  steady  pin« 
ions  they  swept  through  the  airy  spaces,  or  like  fleecy  clouds 
poised  in  mid-air;  the  snake  was  the  visible  expression  of  the 
lightning  that  darted  and  flashed  across  the  sky,  while  similar 
parallelisms  between  physical  and  material  qualities  became 
basic  points  in  the  Indian  philosophy. 


"THE   SPIRIT   OF   PEACE. 


INDIAN  FAITHS  AND    CONFEDERATIONS.  87 

To  the  Dakota  family  of  the  West  the  antelope  typified 
the  spirit  of  peace ;  the  snarling  grizzly  was  the  divinity  of 
war.  In  fact,  the  wild  beasts  with  whose  ways  and  voices  the 
Indian  was  familiar  were  regarded  by  him  as  in  every  way  his 
superiors. 

"We  must  remember,"  says  Dr.  Brinton,  "that  as  a  hunter 
the  primitive  man  was  always  matched  against  the  wild  crea 
tures  of  the  woods,  so  superior  to  him  in  their  dumb  certainty 
of  instinct,  swift  motion,  muscular  force,  and  permanent  and 
sufficient  clothing.  Their  ways  were  guided  by  a  will  beyond 
his  divination  and  they  gained  a  living  with  little  toil  or  trou 
ble.  They  did  not  mind  the  darkness  so  terrible  to  him,  but 
through  the  night  called  one  to  the  other  in  a  tongue  whose 
meaning  he  could  not  fathom,  but  which,  he  doubted  not,  was 
as  full  of  purport  as  his  own.  He  did  not  recognize  in  himself 
those  god-like  qualities  destined  to  endow  him  with  the  royalty 
of  the  world,  while,  far  more  than  we,  he  saw  the  sly,  strange 
faculties  of  his  brute  antagonists." 

Reared  upon  a  basis  of  symbolism  and  myth,  good  and  evil 
powers,  spirits  of  luck  and  calamity,  dreams  and  spells,  and  all 
the  distorted  images  of  superstition  and  of  fear,  the  North 
American  Indian  could  formulate  no  gods  "  one  whit  better 
than  himself."  His  natural  "  animism,"  as  such  blind  worship 
of  the  phenomena  of  nature  is  termed,  exhibited  a  marked  ten 
dency  to  gloomy  rites,  half-insane  ecstasies,  and  bloody  self-tor 
ture.  More  than  this,  it  still  possessed  the  same  crude  elements 
of  a  propitiatory  faith,  that  manifested  itself  in  the  occasional 
cannibal  feasts  and  the  horrible  human  sacrifices  of  the  torture- 
stake,  that  had  marked  the  North  American  savage  from  the 
far-off  days  of  the  Mound-Builder  and  the  Cave-Dweller. 

To  a  people  thus  grounded  upon  an  unsubstantial  faith — a 


88  INDIAN  FAITHS  AA^D    CONFEDERATIONS. 

faith  that  taught  nothing  and  imagined  much  —  the  peculiar 
teaching  of  the  white  man,  peculiarly  taught,  led  to  a  curious, 
though  logical  result.  In  the  South,  the  Spaniard  with  cross 
and  corselet,  priestly  rites  and  inquisatorial  fires,  in  the  North, 
the  French  Jesuit  with  his  open  and  conflicting  desires  of 
material  and  moral  advantage,  alike  preached  and  promised  all 
the  realistic  crudities  of  the  Romish  Church.  And,  between 
these  two,  Puritan,  Lutheran,  Quaker,  Cavalier,  and  Huguenot, 
each  with  tenets  diametrically  and  often  hostilely  opposed, 
sought  to  instill  into  the  receptive  but  unreasoning  Indian 
mind  the  message  of  the  Truth  as  each  opposing  sect  dogmat 
ically  held  it. 

The  savage,  knowing  nothing  of  the  ethical  nature  of  the 
religion  thus  flung  at  him,  received  it  within  the  limited  circle 
of  his  own  fantastic  faith,  and  made  for  himself  a  new  belief  — 
a  jumble  of  mystery,  materialism,  ecstasy  and  stern  alternatives 
in  which  appeared  but  little  of  that  broad  and  civilizing  love  of 
a  Father  who  had  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men,  and 
who  had  equal  regard  for  all. 

From  the  first  the  material  element  was  all  that  was  ad 
vanced  as  a  basis  for  faith.  To  the  Spanish  Indians  conversion 
was  an  alternative  that  meant  either  acceptance  or  death.  To 
the  Jesuit  proselytes  were  promised  a  purely  Algonquin  Heaven 
and  Hell.  "  Images  of  all  the  holy  mysteries  of  our  faith ;  " 
"  pictures  of  souls  in  perdition  —  of  souls  in  bliss  one  will  be 
enough ; "  these  were  what  the  Brothers  in  France  were  re 
quested  to  send  for  the  Huron  conversion.  The  Indian  was 
given  only  what  his  senses  could  appreciate. 

But  more  than  this  material  religion  the  mortal  hates  of 
the  new-comers  had  an  influence  upon  the  minds  of  the  red 
men.  More  cruel  than  the  Indian,  because  more  intelligent ; 


INDIAN  FAITHS  AND    CONFEDERATIONS. 


89 


springing  at  each  other's  throats  in  a  frenzy  of  mingled  relig 
ious  zeal  and  jealous  greed,  Spaniards  and  Frenchmen  alike, 
as  Parkman  declares,  "laid  their  reeking  swords  upon  God's 
altar "  and  placed  the  necessities  for  their  fiendishness  at  the 
door  of  their  All-Merciful  God.  The  butcher  Menendez  and 
his  gang  of  Spanish  cut-throats  ravaged  Florida  "  for  the  sake 
of  Christ  and  His  Blessed  Mother."  In  the  name  of  the  Sav- 


AN    INDIAN    MYTH — THE    INDIAN    BOY    LEARNS   WISDOM    FROM    THE   SQUIRREL. 

iour  of  men,  Frenchmen  and  Englishmen  struggled  for  the  con 
trol  of  Canada.  From  Pemaquid  to  the  capes  of  Delaware, 
Puritan  and  Papist  raged  vengefully  against  one  another. 
Swede  and  Dutchman  bandied  threats  and  blows,  while 
brothers  of  the  same  nation  and  the  same  blood,  in  defence 
of  creed,  or  for  love  of  gold,  were  more  vindictive  toward  one 
another  than  were  ever  Huron  and  Iroquois,  or  the  dusky  fol 
lowers  of  a  Satouriona  and  an  Outina. 

A  conflict  of  creeds  and  lessons  in  hatred  were  thus  en 
grafted  upon  abject  and  fantastic  superstition.  And  what  could 
be  the  outgrowth  ?  Schooled  in  an  atmosphere  of  rapacity, 


9o  INDIAN  FAITHS  AND   CONFEDERATIONS. 

duplicity,  fraud,  and  greed,  of  falsehood  in  trade  and  unbal 
anced  enthusiasm  in  religion,  during  his  three  centuries  of  asso 
ciation  with  the  white  man  the  Indian  could  not  improve  a 
nature  already  compounded  of  savagery.  The  red-man  of 
America  has  been  precisely  what  his  conquerors  have  made 
him.  For  every  torture-stake  and  every  burning  village,  for 
every  cry  of  the  terror  of  surprise,  and  every  scene  of  Indian 
pillage,  the  white  colonists  of  America  are  very  largely  respon 
sible.  The  Indian's  desire  was  his  religion  —  nothing  else. 
In  too  many  instances,  also,  was  the  white  man's  desire  his 
religion ;  and  the  overmastering  spirit  of  greed,  the  stern  de 
mands  of  a  self-imposed  necessity,  and  the  promises  lightly 
made,  and  quite  as  lightly  broken,  furnish  alike  cause  and  ex 
cuse  for  scores  of  Indian  atrocities. 

There  is,  however,  no  cloud  so  dark  but  has  its  bright  side. 
Even  this  hybrid  and  wrongly  developed  pseudo  religion  had 
in  it  many  things  to  lighten  the  weariness  of  a  most  monoto 
nous  existence.  The  myths  that  filled  it  were  often  beneficent 
in  design ;  the  good  spirits  were  quite  as  numerous  as  the  evil 
ones,  and  were  helps  in  seed  time  and  harvest,  in  woodcraft 
and  the  chase,  while,  even  in  the  most  ferocious  of  the  tribes, 
there  is  apparent  a  certain  indication  of  humor,  that  may  be 
dense  and  dull,  but  is  humor,  nevertheless. 

The  tribes  of  the  West  as  they  were  the  latest  to  encounter 
the  white  man  were  also  the  last  to  feel  and  fall  victim  to  his 
influence  and  precepts.  Here,  too,  the  primitive  faith  remained 
longest  intact.  Both  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific  coasts  grew 
familiar  to  the  tread  of  the  white  man,  but  on  the  plains  and 
prairies,  by  the  lakes  and  rivers  of  the  great  West,  from  the 
Alleghanies  to  the  Rockies,  the  red-man  retained  the  longest 
his  own  native  customs,  manners,  and  speech. 


INDIAN  FAITHS  AND   CONFEDERATIONS.  93 

Here,  too,  for  many  a  weary  year  was  the  Debatable  Land  — 
the  "dark  and  bloody  ground"  that  witnessed,  long  after  the 
East  had  accepted  civilization,  the  feud,  the  foray,  the  attack 
and  the  repulse,  the  horror,  the  ferocity  and  the  valor  of  border 
war.  But  here,  too,  remained  longest  unchanged,  the  primitive 
beliefs  of  the  red-man  —  the  giant  and  the  pigmy;  the  dream 
god  and  the  sleep  spirit,  the  witch  woman  and  the  magic  med 
icine,  the  Great  Head,  the  Stone  Giant,  the  myths  of  Atotarho 
and  Hiawatha,  and  all  the  childish  mysteries  that,  long  since, 
had,  among  their  Eastern  brothers,  yielded  to  the  dominating 
influence  of  the  misunderstood  religion  and  the  questionable 
ethics  of  the  all-powerful  white  man. 

It  was  also  among  these  Western  tribes  that  the  peculiar 
system  of  tribal  government  remained  longest  intact  —  a  system 
that,  until  the  arrival  of  the  white  stranger,  had,  to  a  widely 
related  extent,  had  place  in  all  the  American  tribes. 

As  has  already  been  indicated,  this  government  had  a  kin 
ship  or  patriarchal  basis,  and,  by  intermarriage  among  the  tribes, 
this  spirit  of  kinship  was  fostered  and  increased. 

Out  of  this  tie  of  kin  grew,  also,  one  of  the  strongest  bonds 
of  Indian  unity  —  the  do  daim,  or  totem,  as  the  word  has  been 
anglicized.  This  was  essentially  a  system  of  symbol-association 
among  the  numerous  Indian  clans,  and  was  one  that  ramified 
and  intermingled  all  the  native  races  of  America. 

"  In  the  days  when  all  was  new,"  says  a  Zuni  legend,  "  the 
'  Holder  of  the  Paths  of  men,'  the  Sun-Father,  created  from  his 
own  being  two  children  who  fell  to  earth  for  the  good  of  all 
that  live.  These  children  cut  the  face  of  the  world  with  their 
magic  knife  and  were  borne  down  upon  their  magic  shield 
into  the  caverns  in  which  all  men  dwelt.  These  caverns  were 
very  dark,  and  as  men  increased  they  began  to  crowd  one 


94  INDIAN  FAITHS  AND    CONFEDERATIONS. 

another  and  were  very  unhappy.  Then,  at  last,  the  two  chil, 
dren  of  the  Sun-Father  listened  to  the  supplications  of  men 
and  led  them  out  of  the  caverns,  eastward,  toward  the  home 
of  the  Sun-Father.  But,  lo,  the  beasts  of  prey,  powerful  and 
like  the  gods  themselves,  would  have  devoured  the  children 
of  men,  and  the  two  Brothers  thought  it  not  wise  that  these 
all  should  be  permitted  to  live ;  '  for,'  said  they,  '  alike  will 
the  children  of  men  and  the  children  of  the  beasts  of  prey 
multiply,  and  the  children  of  men  are  the  weaker.'  So, 
whenever  they  came  across  the  pathway  of  one  of  these  ani 
mals,  were  he  mountain  lion  or  mole,  the  Brothers  struck 
him  with  the  fire  of  lightning  which  they  carried  in  their 

magic  shield.  T/iluf 
and  instantly  he  was 
shrivelled  and  burnt 
into  stone.  Then 
said  they  to  the  an- 

CAYOTE    FETICH;    A   TOTEM    OF   THE   ZUNI.  .  -,         -,  111 

imals  they  had  thus 

changed  to  stone,  '  That  ye  may  not  be  evil  unto  men,  but 
that  ye  may  be  a  great  good  unto  them,  have  we  changed 
you  into  rock  everlasting.  By  the  magic  breath  of  prey,  by 
the  heart  that  shall  endure  forever  within  you,  shall  ye  be 
made  to  serve  instead  of  to  devour  mankind.' " 

These  beasts,  represented  in  stone  "  fetiches "  among  the 
Southwestern  tribes  and  in  rude  "  pictographs  "  by  most  of 
the  others,  were  accepted  or  adopted  as  the  guardian  spirits 
or  protectors,  of  man.  Each  individual  family,  in  the  earliei 
days,  had  such  a  tutelary  genius.  Intermarriage  carried  the 
genius  of  an  especial  family  into  other  tribes,  for  the  warrioi 
always  followed  the  clan  of  his  wife  and  became  a  member 
of  the  family  into  which  he  married. 


INDIAN  FAITHS  AND    CONFEDERATIONS.  95 

The  Bear  and  the  Wolf,  the  Tortoise,  the  Eagle,  the 
Snipe  and  other  well-known  creatures  of  earth  and  air  be 
came,  thus,  the  family  gods  —  the  Lares  and  Penates  of  the 
American  Indians. 

When  such  a  reptile,  bird,  or  quadruped  was  adopted  as 
a  guardian  spirit,  its  rude  representation,  or  pictograph,  wher 
ever  seen,  was  at  once  recognized  and  respected  by  other 
possessors  of  the  same  totem.  Like  the  hand-clasp  or  pass 
word  of  modern  secret  societies,  the  symbol  of  the  totem 
secured  for  its  owner  all  the  rights  of  hospitality,  help  and 
friendship  wherever  claimed  or  needed,  alike  among  hostile 
and  stranger  tribes,  as  among  friendly  and  confederated  ones. 
"  The  wayfarer,  the  hunter,  or  the  warrior,"  says  Mr.  Parkman, 
"  was  sure  of  a  cordial  welcome  in  the  distant  lodge  of  the 
clansman  whose  face,  perhaps,  he  had  never  seen." 

A  warrior  might  change  his  name  repeatedly.  Prowess, 
exalted  service,  or  increasing  possessions  might  lead  to  this, 
and  "  Rain-in-the-face  "  to-day,  might  be  "  Two-feathers  "  to-mor 
row.  But  the  totem  name  was  never  changed.  Its  central 
motive  was  the  modern  German  doctrine  of  "once  a  citizen 
always  a  citizen."  Bear  or  Beaver,  Turtle  or  Wolf,  the  pos 
sessors  of  these  badges  of  consanguinity  were  always  and 
unalterably  Bear  or  Beaver,  Turtle  or  Wolf,  wherever  they 
might  be  or  whatever  they  might  become.  It  is  not  entirely 
possible  to  assign  a  sufficient  reason  for  the  great  impor 
tance  attached  to  the  totem,  unless  it  be  the  expression  of 
that  strong  love  of  kin  that  formed  the  basis  of  the  Indian 
nature.  This,  if  explaining  its  importance,  would  also  explain 
the  respect  paid  to  it,  and  if,  as  appears,  the  totem  is  the  out 
growth  of  the  original  clan-marks  of  all  the  Indian  tribes 
without  regard  to  the  tribal  organization,  in  it  may  be  dis- 


96 


INDIAN  FAITHS  AND    CONFEDERATIONS. 


covered  the  very  earliest  traits  of  association,  political  or 
social,  among  the  separating  races,  while  it  may  also  be  re 
garded  as  an  immediate  outgrowth  of  the  original  or  patriarchal 
state. 

This  mystic  connection  of  the  totem,  as  it  was  the  first  to 
take  its  place  among  the  tribal  phases  of  Indian  life,  is  the  last 
to  disappear.  The  influence  of  a  resistless  civilization  may 

have  modified,  altered, 
or  obliterated  most  of 
the  original  and  distinct 
ive  characteristics  of  the 
native  races.  The  steady 
advance  of  the  white 
man's  conquests  may 
have  degenerated  or  cul 
tivated  the  Indian  na 
ture;  but,  alike  among 
the  scattered  reserva 
tions  of  the  East,  the 
roving  tribes  of  the 
North  and  the  pueblo 
dwellers  of  the  South 
west,  the  influence  and 
permanence  of  the  totem  are  still  apparent  and  still  religiously 
adhered  to. 

"  Very  many  years  ago,"  still  say  the  Navajo  sages,  "  the 
grand  Mother  brought  from  her  home  in  the  setting  sun  nine 
separate  forms  of  plant  and  animal  life.  These  were :  first,  the 
deer  race ;  second,  the  sand  race ;  third,  the  water  race  ;  fourth, 
the  bear  race ;  fifth,  the  hare  race ;  sixth,  the  prairie-wolf  race ; 
seventh,  the  rattlesnake  race ;  eighth,  the  tobacco-plant  race ; 


"? 


IN   THE  LAND    OF  THE  FETICH.  — AN    ARIZONA  CANON. 


INDIAN  FAITHS  AND    CONFEDERATIONS.  97 

ninth,  the  reed-grass  race.  Having  placed  or  planted  them 
upon  the  spot  where  the  villages  now  stand  the  Mother  trans 
formed  them  into  men.  They  built  the  pueblos,  and  the  totem 
distinctions  are  still  kept  up."  The  Navajo  from  whom  Mrs. 
Ellen  Russell  Emerson  received  the  above  modernized  tradition 
was  of  the  deer  race.  The  deer  was  his  totem,  and  throughout 
his  clan,  in  spite  of  all  the  words  of  the  white  missionaries,  the 
belief  prevailed  that  after  death  the  soul  of  every  member  of 
the  Deer  totem  would  transmigrate  into  the  form  of  a  deer. 

The  basic  difference  between  the  clan  and  the  tribe  is  thus 
at  once  apparent.  The  clan  was  totemic,  the  tribe  was  direct 
ive  ;  the  clan  was  the  bond  of  kinship,  the  tribe  of  daily  life ; 
the  clan  had  no  distinct  chieftain,  it  was  simply  a  diversified 
bond  of  blood  relationship ;  the  tribe  was  the  governmental 
organization,  necessary  wherever  the  families  of  men  unite  for 
mutual  protection  and  support. 

The  tendency  of  all  society,  whether  civilized  or  barbarous, 
is  naturally,  though  gradually,  toward  cohesion,  union  and  cen 
tralization.  The  Athenian  and  the  Roman  states  both  grew 
out  of  such  a  coalescence  of  antecedent  tribes. 

The  narrower  the  limit  of  the  land  the  speedier  is  this 
union.  Scattered  over  a  vast  area  and  separated  by  the  bar 
riers  of  climate  and  of  speech,  the  Indian  tribes  of  North 
America  emerged  but  slowly  from  the  barbarism  into  which 
the  whole  land  had  fallen  when  the  suggested  and  unsubstantial 
civilization  of  pre-historic  days  had  gone  down  into  savagery. 
For  this  reason  the  spirit  of  union  was  of  but  slow  and  retarded 
growth,  but  that  it  did  exist  the  numerous  confederacies  that 
were  found  in  the  land  at  the  time  of  its  discovery  by  Euro 
peans  is  sufficient  evidence. 

Of  these  confederacies  the  strongest,  the  most  intelligent, 


93  INDIAN  FAITHS  AND    CONFEDERATIONS. 

the  most  alert  —  "foremost  in  war,  foremost  in  eloquence,  fore 
most  in  their  savage  arts  of  policy,"  declares  Mr.  Parkman  — 
were  the  Hod'enosaunee — the  "  People  of  the  Long  House."  This 
was  the  only  name  by  which  the  five  confederated  Indian  tribes 
called  by  the  French  "Iroquois"  ever  designated  themselves. 
The  tribal  union  of  this  remarkable  people  was  not  exceeded 
in  rude  state-craft  even  by  the  half-mythical  Aztec  confederation, 
and  their  story,  briefly  told,  will  indicate  the  general  nature  of 
the  other  though  less  perfect  Indian  confederacies  of  North 
America. 

Fully  five  hundred  years  ago  there  lived  on  the  banks  of 
the  Mississippi  and  its  tributary  streams  an  extensive  branch 
of  the  Indian  race,  known  as  the  Dakotas.  A  small  but  ambi 
tious  section  of  this  central  family,  impelled  by  the  roving  dis 
position  that  has  always  been  the  cause  of  race  emigration, 
separated  itself  from  the  parent  stock  and  moving  north 
eastward  halted,  at  last,  in  the  valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  For 
years  the  exiles  lived  near  to  the  present  site  of  Montreal  as  a 
semi-agricultural  community.  But  their  numbers  were  small, 
and  they  were  continually  harassed  by  the  fierce  Adirondacks, 
a  tribe  of  the  hostile  Algonquin  race  among  whom  they  had 
settled,  and  were  pushed  to  extremities  for  maintenance  and 
subsistence. 

Again  they  resolved  to  emigrate,  and  leaving  behind  them  a 
small  fraction  of  their  tribe,  who  became  finally  the  Hurons  of 
Canada  and  their  bitterest  enemies,  the  settlers  made  another 
remove. 

This  time  they  resolved  upon  a  southward  route.  Embark 
ing  in  their  frail  canoes  they  coasted  along  the  eastern  shores 
of  Lake  Ontario  until  they  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Oswego 
River.  Here  they  remained  for  generations,  and,  their  numbers 
increasing,  they  scattered  themselves  over  the  fertile  lands  in 


INDIAN  FAITHS  AND    CONFEDERATIONS. 


99 


the  lake  section  of  Central  New  York.  Out  of  the  central 
stock  three  tribes  first  formed  themselves  —  the  Mohawks,  the 
Onondagas  and  the  Senecas.  Later,  portions  of  these  with 
drawing  themselves  made  two  additional  tribes,  the  Oneidas 
and  Cayugas.  Their  villages  surrounded  by  palisades  housed 
and  protected  them,  and  from  rovers  they  became  settled  In- 


•~i  . 


Tt4*~ 


3w&&&r^  . 


'We 


IPW^^V'       '^ 

aPRr  *^"«M*^4^  -*•-,     >•? 

rf-    i/;4  —^\r  i  v^          <;  * 

^""'       ^       r  J^vfc 


A   YOUNG   N  A  VA JO 'SHEPHERDESS. 

dians,  hardy  agriculturists,  living  upon  the  produce  of  their  farm 
lands  and  the  fish  and  game  that  lakes  and  forests  had  ready  at 
hand.  Thus  the  original  stock  became  at  last,  five  independent 
though  neighboring  tribes,  bound  together  by  the  common  ties 
of  race  and  language.*  The  ties  of  kindred  and  of  the  totem 
made  many  of  their  interests  identical,  while  the  onsets  of 

*In  1715  the  Tuscaroras,  a  kindred  tribe  living  in  the  Carolinas,  were  admitted  into  the  League  as  a  sixth  nation, 
and  although  they  had  not  the  same  standing  in  the  confederacy  as  had  the  five  original  tribes  the  League  was  there 
after  known  to  white  men  as  the  "  Six  Nations." 


IOO 


INDIAN  FAITHS  AND    CONFEDERATIONS. 


other  and  unfriendly  tribes  made  a  scheme  of  mutual  protection 
highly  feasible. 

The  men  of  these  five  nations  were  capable  and  far-seeing 
beyond  their  kind.  They  had  the  intelligence  not  only  to  appre 
ciate  the  wisdom  of  confederation,  but  the  skill  to  undertake  it. 

Somewhere  about  the 
middle  of  the  fifteenth  cen 
tury  a  council  of  the  wise 
men  and  chiefs  of  the  five 
tribes  met  upon  the  north 
ern  shore  of  Onondaga 
Lake  near  the  site  of  the 
present  thriving  city  of 
Syracuse.  It  was  at  this 
council  that  a  plan  of  con 
federation  was  formulated, 
adopted  and  immediately 
entered  upon. 

The  confederacy  thus 
formed  by  these  five  kin 
dred  tribes  was  based  up 
on  the  principle  of  absolute  and  fraternal  equality.  Each 
tribe  remained  independent  so  far  as  local  self-government 
was  concerned,  but  in  matters  of  mutual  interest  they  were 
united  and  patriotic.  The  principle  of .  totemship  was,  how 
ever,  the  real  and  underlying  strength  of  the  Iroquois  con 
federacy.  Three  of  these  totems  —  the  Wolf,  the  Bear,  and 
the  Turtle,  —  were  common  to  all  the  tribes;  and  three  more 
—  the  Deer,  the  Snipe  and  the  Hawk  —  were  common  to 
three  of  the  five.  "  Thus,"  says  Mr.  Parkman,  "  the  five  nations 
of  the  confederacy  were  laced  together  by  an  eightfold  band ; 


PALISADED    IROQUOIS   VILLAGE. 
{From  an  old  cut?} 


INDIAN  FAITHS  AND    CONFED^RATJON^          i^tttt 

and  to  this  hour  the  slender  remnants  cling  to  one  another 
with  an  invincible  tenacity."  And  Mr.  Morgan,  in  his  exhaust 
ive  study  of  this  kindred  confederacy,  says :  "  The  history  of 
the  Iroquois  demonstrates  the  reality  as  well  as  the  persist 
ency  of  the  bond  of  kin,  and  the  fidelity  with  which  it  \vas 
respected.  During  the  long  period  through  which  the  con 
federacy  endured,  they  never  fell  into  anarchy,  nor  ruptured 
the  organization." 

The  composition  of  the  confederacy  gave  to  each  tribe 
unhampered,  its  chief,  sub-chiefs,  and  councillors.  But  all 
matters  of  national  importance  that  called  for  united  action 
were  discussed  and  settled  by  the  central  council,  composed 
of  the  chiefs  of  tribes.  This  met,  when  summoned,  in  the 
bark  council  house  —  the  "Long  House"  —  in  the  valley  of 
Onondaga. 

So  intelligent  a  political  organization  was  really  a  long 
step  in  the  direction  of  civilization.  Just  how  far  this  step 
might  have  led  can  only  be  matter  for  conjecture.  There  is, 
however,  little  doubt  that  it  would  have  been  a  dominating 
influence  on  the  American  continent. 

"  The  Six  Nations,"  proudly  declared  the  Mohawk  Thayen- 
danegea,  known  as  Joseph  Brant,  "  have  no  dictator  among  the 
nations  of  the  earth.  We  are  not  the  wards  of  England.  We 
are  a  Commonwealth  !  " 

A  confederacy  compounded  of  such  pronounced  statecraft 
and  such  restless  activities,  though  formed  for  mutual  protection, 
logically  became  adherents  of  a  policy  of  open  aggression. 
Themselves  firmly  established  in  a  range  of  country  admir 
ably  adapted  for  their  secure  unity  the  Iroquois  year  by  year 
grow  more  ambitious  and  arbitrary.  Aiming  at  greater 
power  they  brought  their  neighbors  under  tribute  or  waged  a 


INDIAN  FAITHS  AND    CONFEDERATIONS. 


remorseless  and  continuous  warfare  against  such  as  dared  to 
withstand  or  attack  them. 

It  has  been  claimed  for  the  Cherokee  nation  —  a  part  of 
the  former  Creek  confederacy  of  the  South  —  that  it  repre 
sented,  in  intelligence  and  capacity  for  civilization,  in  manner 
of  living,  agricultural  advantages,  architecture  and  laws,  the 
highest  type  of  Indian  civilization.  But  whatever  may  have 
been  their  attainments  it  is  certain  that  they  lacked  the  vitality, 
progressiveness,  and  political  sagacity  that  marked  the  rest 
less  and  resistless  Iroquois. 

East  and  West,  North  and  South  the  power  of  the  Hod'eno- 
saunee  spread.  A  nation  of  warriors,  their  "  unsatiable  ambi 
tion  and  restless  ferocity "  brooked  neither  enemy  nor  rival, 
and  the  career  of  conquest  of  these  "  Romans  of  the  West " 
as  they  have  been  not  inaptly  called,  was  checked  only  by 
the  interposition  of  a  foreign  and  unlooked-for  power  greater 
than  themselves. 


CHAPTER   V. 


CULTURE     AND     COMMUNISM. 

THE    warlike   Hodenosaunee,  with 
their     congress     and     their     council 
house,     their     careful     organization, 
alike    political   and    military,  their  forays  and 
friendships,  their  treaties  and  tributaries,  may 
stand    as  a  type  of   the  slowly  growing  intel 
ligence    that,    before    the   coming   of    Eastern 
civilization,  was  already  moulding  and  uniting 
the  tribes  of  North   America. 

"  A  tendency  to  confederate  for  mutual  cfefence,"  says  Mr. 
Morgan,  "  would  naturally  exist  among  kindred  and  contigu 
ous  tribes.  .  .  .  The  organization,  at  first  a  league,  would 
gradually  cement  into  a  federal  unity." 

This,  he  claims,  would  be  simply  a  growth  from  a  lower 
into  a  higher  organization  by  an  extension  of  the  principle 

which  united  kindred  people  into  a  tribe. 

103 


IO4 


CULTURE  AND    COMMUNISM. 


Growing  thus  out  of  pre-existing  elernents,  by  a  law  of 
intellectual  development,  the  league  or  confederacy  became 
naturally  a  phase  of  Indian  life.  The  most  intelligent,  be 
cause  the  most  ambitious 
of  the  tribes  gravitated 
toward  this  state  of 
union. 

Among  the  confed 
eracies  on  the  North 
American  continent 
known  to  have  been  in 
existence  at  the  time  of 
discovery  were  the  Ho- 
denosaunee,  or  Iroquois, 
already  described  and 
composed  of  the  five  in 
dependent  tribes  of  Cen 
tral  New  York ;  the  Creek,  or  Mobilian  Confederacy  of  the 
South,  formed  by  a  union  of  six  tribes ;  the  Ottawa  confed 
eracy  of  the  North  embracing  three  tribes ;  the  Dakota  League 
of  the  Mississippi  Valley  made  from  the  union  of  seven  tribes, 
—  the  "  Seven  Council  Fires,"  as  they  called  themselves ;  the 
Moki  Confederacy  of  seven  pueblos  in  New  Mexico,  and  the 
Aztec  Confederacy  of  three  tribes'  in  the  valley  of  Mexico. 

Other  similar  though  smaller  confederacies  possibly  ex 
isted,  but  this  enumeration  doubtless  comprises  the  leading 
and  dominant  ones. 

There  were,  also,  other  tribes  who  were  perceptibly  pro 
gressing  toward  this  state  of  confederation.  Such,  as  an 
example,  was  the  Thegiha  union,  comprising  the  three  tribes 
of  the  Omahas,  the  Ponkas  and  the  Osages,  who  with  the 


IN    THE    MOKI    LAND. 


CULTURE  AND    COMMUNISM. 


lowas  and  Kaws,  or  Kansas,  formed,  for  a  time,  a  sort  of 
roving  confederacy  through  Upper  Missouri.  Later  still,  as 
friction  with  the  whites  produced  conflicts  and  warfare,  tribes 
that  had  previously  been  hostile  united  on  the  common  bond 
of  vengeance,  as  in  the  days  of  Philip,  the  sachem  of  Pokon- 
oket,  and  of  Pontiac,  chief  of  the  Ottawas.  But  these  all 
were  partial  or  peremptory  unions  and  are  in  no  wise  to  be 
associated  with  the  real  confederacies  of  which  the  Iroquois 
stands  as  the  type. 

The  law  of  intellectual  development  to  which  this  prin 
ciple  of  confederation  has  been  referred  was  of  varying  exist 
ence  throughout  the  land.  In  so  many  phases  of  human  life, 
ranging  from  savagery  up 

:     ~^:  ~  ^f---   --:----_          '  --:'•'---- 

to  intelligent  barbarism, 
from  the  degraded  types  of 
the  Columbia  Valley  to  the 
Iroquois  of  New  York,  and 
the  village  Indians  of  the 
southwestern  Pueblos,  it 
was  possible  to  find  exam 
ples  of  all  the  intermediate 
stages. 

Ethnologists  agree  in 
giving  to  what  they  call  the 
"  culture  periods  "  of  man 
kind  seven  distinct  steps 
from  absolute  savagery  to 
civilization.  These  steps, 
or  "periods,"  are  based  upon  the  acquisitive  and  inventive 
faculties  of  man. 

Allowing  to  the  North    American   Indian  a    relapse    from 


THE    HOME    OF    THE    COLUMBIANS. 


io6  CULTURE  AND    COMMUNISM. 

the  spurious  civilization  of  pre-historic  times  into  a  general 
state  of  savagery,  and  from  thence  a  consistent  though  gradual 
progress  out  of  savagery  again,  it  is  permissable  to  accept 
the  deduction  of  the  ethnologists  and  to  place  the  Indian  races 
of  North  America  at  the  era  of  European  discovery  in  those 
several  stages  of  development  occupied  by  what  is  termed  the 
Later  Period  of  Savagery,  the  Older  Period  of  Barbarism  and 
the  Middle  Period  of  Barbarism. 

This  classification  advances  an  American  Indian  from  but 
two  removes  from  the  initial  or  Older  Period  of  Barbarism  to 
within  two  removes  from  the  highest  Period,  that  of  Civiliza 
tion.  It  must  be  assumed,  however,  that  there  were  tribes  who 
were  living  in  a  condition  still  closer  to  savagery  as  there  were 
also  tribes  living  nearer  to  civilization.  As  the  statement  of 
a  fact,  however,  this  general  classification  may  be  accepted. 

Upon  this  basis,  therefore,  Mr.  Lewis  H.  Morgan,  who  has 
devoted  careful  study  to  the  ethnic  theory,  thus  divides  the 
tribes  who  occupied  the  land  at  the  time  of  its  discovery: 

.  "  When  America  was  discovered  in  its  several  parts  the 
Indian  tribes  were  found  in  dissimilar  conditions.  The  least 
advanced  tribes  were  without  the  art  of  pottery  and  without 
horticulture,  and  were  therefore  in  savagery.  But  in  the  arts 
of  life  they  were  advanced  as  far  as  is  implied  by  its  upper 
status  ( '  the  Later  Period  of  Savagery ' )  which  found  them  in 
possession  of  the  bow  and  arrow. 

"Such  were  the  tribes  in  the  valley  of  the  Columbia,  in 
the  Hudson  Bay  Territory,  in  parts  of  Canada,  California 
and  Mexico.  The  use  of  pottery  and  cultivation  of  maize 
and  plants  were  unknown  among  them. 

"  The  second  class  were  intermediate  between  these  and 
the  Village  Indians.  They  subsisted  upon  fish,  game,  and 


CULTURE  AND   COMMUNISM.  107 

the    products    of    a    limited    horticulture,    and    were    in    the 
Lower  Status  ( the   '  Older   Period   of   Barbarism ' ) . 

"  Such  were  the  Iroquois,  the  New  England  and  Virginia 
Indians,  the  Creeks,  Cherokees  and  Choctaws,  the  Shawnees, 
Miamis,  Mandans,  Minnitarees,  and  other  tribes  of  the  United 
States,  east  of  the  Missouri  River,  together  with  certain 
tribes  of  Mexico  in  the  same  condition  of  advancement. 
Many  of  them  lived  in  villages,  some  of  which  were  stock 
aded,  but  village  life  was  not  as  distinctive  and  common 
among  them  as  it  was  among  the  most  advanced  tribes. 
"  The  third  class  were  the  Village  Indians  proper,  who  de- 


THE   HOME   OF  THE   "VILLAGE    INDIANS  " — A   TOWN    OF  THE   ZUNIS. 

pended  almost  exclusively  upon  horticulture  for  subsistence, 
cultivating  maize  and  plants  by  irrigation.  They  constructed 
joint  tenement  houses  of  adobe  bricks  and  of  stone,  usually 
more  than  one  story  high. 

"Such  were  the  tribes  of  New  Mexico,  Mexico  and  Central 
America.  These  tribes  were,  in  the  Middle  Period  of  Bar 
barism." 

Accepting  this  classification,  with  its  apparent  and  neces 
sary  modifications,  as,  in  the  main,  correct,  it  will  be  seen  that 
the  so-called  "  Village  Indians,"  though  possessing  the  highest 
culture  were  neither  the  most  assertive  nor  the  dominating 


io8  CULTURE  AND   COMMUNISM. 

class.  With  the  exception,  perhaps,  of  the  alleged  civilization 
of  the  Aztec  Confederacy,  the  Village  Indians  never  attained 
either  power  or  supremacy.  The  restless  and  resistless  ferocity 
of  the  other  tribes  and  the  untiring  ambitions  especially  of  the 
more  aggressive  of  the  intermediate  class  made  them  the  most 
powerful  and,  really,  the  most  progressive  section  of  the  native 
American  races.  The  Iroquois  confederacy  undoubtedly  rep 
resents  the  highest  supremacy  ever  attained  by  the  so-called 
"  Indians  "  of  America  after  the  decline  and  fall  of  its  pre-his- 
toric  peoples. 

The  theory  of  government  that  held  in  all  American  tribes, 
in  whatever  period  of  savagery  or  barbarism  they  were  grouped, 
was  a  plain  and  simple  one.  It  grew,  naturally,  out  of  the  pa 
triarchal  basis  of  Indian  life,  with  its  respect  for  age  and  its 
regard  for  the  ties  of  kindred. 

It  consisted  merely  of  a  collection  of  families  grouped  to 
gether  as  a  tribe,  with  one  governing  but  not  arbitrary  chief  as 
its  head.  There  were  subordinate  chiefs  who  led  in  war  or 
directed  the  chase,  and  a  council  of  the  older  men,  or  certain 
of  the  heads  of  families  would  in  cases  of  special  need  or  grave 
import  advise  the  ruling  chief  as  to  his  duty  in  the  case. 

The  office  of  chief  was  rarely  hereditary  in  the  sense  of  a  de 
scent  of  the  ruling  power  from  father  to  son.  This  did  hold  in 
a  few  of  the  Pacific  tribes,  but  as  a  rule  the  office  of  chief  was 
dependent  upon  special  and  personal  attributes  such  as  wisdom 
in  council  or  fearless  leadership  in  war.  Preference  in  selection 
Was  given  to  the  son  of  a  chief  if  he  had  exhibited  peculiar  fit 
ness  for  the  office,  but  no  man  of  lazy  habits  or  of  coward  blood 
could  raise  himself  to  the  post  of  chief. 

Although  there  have  been  instances  of  chiefs  who  were 
tyrants  and  despots  such  cases  were  rare.  So  great  was  the 


CULTURE  AND    COMMUNISM.  109 

love  of  personal  liberty  among  the  Indians  that  absolutism  in 
office  was  a  dangerous  experiment.  Mahto-Tatonka,  the  Ogil- 
lallah,  whose  story  Mr.  Parkman  has  told  in  "  The  Oregon 
Trail "  was  a  case  in  point.  "  No  chief  could  vie  with  him," 
says  the  narrator,  "  in  warlike  renown  or  in  power  over  his  peo 
ple.  He  had  a  fearless  spirit  and  an  impetuous  and  inflexible 
resolution.  His  will  was  law.  He  was  politic  and  sagacious 
and  it  fared  hard  with  those  who  incurred  his  displeasure.  .  . 
In  a  community  where,  from  immemorial  time  no  man  has 
acknowledged  any  law  but  his  own  will,  Mahto-Tatonka  raised 
himself  to  power  little  ^hort  of  despotic."  But  his  career  came 
to  a  sudden  end.  His  assumption  of  supremacy  raised  up  a 
host  of  enemies,  and  maddened  at  last  by  his  arrogance  and 
tyranny  they  turned  upon  him  in  desperation  and  this  "  Nero 
of  the  West "  fell  beneath  the  arrows  of  his  own  tribesmen. 

Cases  like  this,  however,  were,  as  has  been  said,  exceptional. 
In  many  instances  the  chief  was  less  comfortably  housed  and 
less  generously  provided  with  the  necessities  of  life  than  were 
his  warriors.  A  chief,  if  he  would  secure  and  retain  popular 
favor,  must  be  shrewd  and  diplomatic  in  his  dealings  with  those 
who,  for  the  time,  recognized  his  authority.  Indeed,  like  many 
a  feudal  lord  or  political  leader  of  civilized  lands  an  Indian 
chieftain  has  often  beggared  himself  in  his  efforts  to  bind  his 
followers  to  his  fortunes. 

A  noticeable  defect  in  the  Indian  character  was,  indeed, 
based  upon  this  very  quality  of  desire  for  personal  liberty. 
This  defect  was  to  be  found  in  the  frequent  irresolution  con 
cerning  matters  that  demanded  union  of  action.  Where  each 
man  decides  for  himself  and  is,  to  a  certain  extent,  a  law  unto 
himself,  a  conflict  of  opinion  is  certain  to  result  in  disputes  or 
in  the  uncertainties  of  a  divided  council.  The  failure  of  In- 


no 


CULTURE   AND    COMMUNISM. 


dian  wars  has,  next  to  the  superiority  of  the  white  man's 
weapons  and  discipline,  been  largely  due  to  the  indecision  as 
to  joint  action  which  the  red  men  have  displayed. 

The  prominence  of  the  Iroquois  league  was  a  result  of  their 

loyalty  to  the  decisions 
in  council,  and  the  wis 
dom  that  made  diem 
an  exceptional  race  was 
quite  as  much  the  se 
cret  of  their  success 
over  their  neighbors 
and  their  enemies. 

But,  while  this  de 
fect  might  apply  to  joint 
action  in  large  bodies 
it  does  not  appear  to 
touch  the  Indian's  tri 
bal  relations.  Here  all 
were  as  members  of 
one  large  family,  and 
what  affected  one  af- 
fcted  all.  The  chief 
of  a  tribe  was  merely 
the  exponent  of  public 
opinion,  and  all  the  af 
fairs  of  the  tribe  or  the 
related  lodges  of  a  tribe 
were  regulated  by  the  heads  of  households. 

The  kinsmen  of  a  chief  were  usually  his  most  reliable  adhe 
rents,  and  the  influence  of  the  totem  was  apparent  in  the  divi 
sions  and  tenements  of  every  village  or  tribe.  But  a  spirit  of 


WHITE   BUFFALO,   THE   BOY   CHIEF   OF   THE   CHEYENNES 
(From  a  photograph.} 


CULTURE  AND   COMMUNISM.  in 

harmony  always  appears  to  have  existed  in  every  tribe,  the 
chieftain  of  which  was  politic  enough  to  be  mindful  of  the  inde 
pendent  nature  of  his  tribesmen. 

Due  respect  however  was  always  paid  to  the  office  of  chief. 
"  They  never  interrupt  him  when  he  is  speaking,"  says  Sir 
William  Johnson,  "  nor  use  harsh  language,  whatever  be  their 
thoughts.  The  chief  assumes  most  authority  in  the  field,  but 
this  must  be  done,  even  there,  with  great  caution ;  as  a  head 
warrior  thinks  himself  of  most  consequence  in  that  place." 

The  manner  of  Indian  life  tended  to  communities.  Single 
or  scattered  lodges  there  may  occasionally  have  been,  but  a  her 
mit  Indian  was  rare.  The  necessity  for  subsistence  was  itself 
sufficient  cause  for  the  necessity  for  union.  Even  the  roving 
bands  that  moved  from  hunting-ground  to  hunting-ground,  rest 
less,  nomadic  and  vagrant,  were  composed  of  separate  families 
and  held  their  inter-tribal  relations  quite  as  positively  as  did 
their  more  stable  and  intelligent  brethren. 

Even  more  than  in  a  civilized  state  the  members  of  an  In 
dian  community  needed  each  other.  Their  very  usages  were 
proof  of  this.  War  and  the  chase  —  the  pursuit  of  power  and 
of  food  —  equally  depended  upon  self-help  and  showed  the  ten 
dency  to  a  common  purpose.  Fish  and  game  sought  with 
equal  labor  and  equal  risk  by  all  the  fishermen  and  hunters  of 
the  tribe  were  equally  divided.  "  Their  large  houses,"  says  Mr. 
Morgan,  "usually  contained  several  families,  consisting  of  par 
ents,  their  sons  and  daughters-in-law,  and  grandchildren.  Pro 
visions  in  such  a  house  were  all  in  common  and  the  harmony 
of  the  joint  home  was  scarcely  ever  interrupted  by  disputes." 
As  has  already  been  stated  an  Indian  village  was  like  one  large 
family  wherein  whatever  affected  one  affected  all. 

In  this  phase  of  living,  indeed,  may  be  found  that  element 


ii2  CULTURE  AND   COMMUNISM. 

of  simple  communism  which  was  common  to  all  the  North 
American  tribes.  Equals  in  all  things  —  in  property,  in  power, 
and  in  responsibilities,  the  Indians  were  especially  equals  in  the 
matter  of  tribal  relations. 

The  land,  as  has  already  been  shown,  was  common  property. 
According  to  the  Moravian  missionary  Heckewelder  who  made 
a  minute  study  of  Indian  manners  and  methods  the  red  man 
held  that  Hi-nun  the  beneficent  had  "  made  the  earth  and  all 
that  it  contained  for  the  common  good  of  mankind.  When  he 
stocked  the  country  that  he  gave  them  with  plenty  of  game,  it 
was  not  for  the  benefit  of  a  few,  but  of  all.  Everything  was 
given  in  common  to  the  sons  of  men.  Whatever  liveth  on  the 
land,  whatsoever  groweth  out  of  the  earth,  and  all  that  is  in  the 
rivers  and  waters  flowing  through  the  same,  was  given  jointly 
to  all,  and  every  one  is  entitled  to  his  share." 

"Sell  a  country!"  indignantly  exclaimed  Tecumthe  the 
Shawanoe  patriot,  when  protesting  against  the  sale  of  lands  to 
the  whites ;  "  why  not  sell  the  air,  the  clouds,  and  the  great  sea, 
as  well  as  the  earth  ?  Did  not  the  Great  Spirit  make  them  all 
for  his  children  ?  " 

And  this  communistic  phase  of  Indian  faith  leads,  naturally, 
to  another  marked  and  positive  characteristic  in  the  native 
American  —  his  boundless  hospitality.  It  sprung  from  this 
community  of  interests  repeatedly  alluded  to,  and  appears  to 
have  been  a  universal  practice  at  the  time  of  discovery.  It  was 
this  that  obtained  so  gracious  a  welcome  for  the  earlier  discov 
erers,  every  one  of  whom  from  Columbus  to  Hudson  and  John 
Smith  reports  the  offerings  of  food  pressed  upon  them  by  the 
natives.  It  is  this  that,  to-day  even,  notwithstanding  all  the 
years  of  the  white  man's  selfishness  and  bad  faith,  holds  in 
the  lodge  of  the  savage. 


CULTURE  AND   COMMUNISM.  113 

"  They  would  come  to  us,"  says  Mr.  Parkman,  describing 
his  adventures  among  the  Dakotas,  "muttering  certain  words, 
which  being  interpreted  conveyed  the  concise  invitation  *  Come 
and  eat.'  Then  we  would  rise,  cursing  the  pertinacity  of 
Dakota  hospitality,  which  allowed  scarcely  an  hour  of  rest  be 
tween  sun  and  sun,  and  to  which  we  were  bound  to  do  honor, 


AN  INDIAN'S  GREETING:  Itah,  itah  —  "GOOD  BE  TO  YOU." 

unless  we  would  offend  our  entertainers.  ...  So  boun 
teous  an  entertainment,"  he  adds,  "  looks  like  an  outgushing  of 
good-will ;  but,  doubtless,  half  at  least  of  our  kind  hosts,  had 
they  met  us  alone  and  unarmed  on  the  prairie,  would  have 
robbed  us  of  our  horses,  and  perhaps  have  bestowed  an  arrow 
upon  us  besides." 


ii4  CULTURE  AND    COMMUNISM. 

But  alike  the  proffered  fruits  of  the  island  of  Hispaniola 
and  the  "  Come  and  eat "  of  the  northern  Dacotas  were  based 
upon  a  law  of  hospitality  that  is  deeply  ingrained  in  Indian  life. 

"  It  was,"  says  Mr.  Morgan,  "  an  active,  well-established  cus 
tom  of  Indian  society,  practised  among  themselves  and  among 
strangers  from  other  tribes."  It  was  based  upon  the  commu 
nistic  principle  referred  to  by  Heckewelder  the  Moravian,  and 
with  the  Indians,  he  says,  "  hospitality  was  not  a  virtue  but  a 
strict  duty.  .  .  .  They  give  and  are  hospitable  to  all  with 
out  exception,  and  will  always  share  with  each  other  and  often 
with  the  stranger,  to  the  last  morsel." 

"  They  rather  would  lie  down  themselves  on  an  empty  stom 
ach,"  declares  the  good  Moravian,  "  than  have  it  laid  down  to 
their  charge  that  they  had  neglected  their  duty  by  not  satisfy 
ing  the  wants  of  the  stranger,  the  sick  or  the  needy." 

The  substance  of  the  Iroquois  law  of  hospitality,  according 
to  Mr.  Morgan,  is  as  follows :  "  If  a  man  entered  an  Indian 
house,  whether  a  villager,  a  tribesman,  or  a  stranger,  and  at 
whatever  hour  of  trie  day,  it  was  the  duty  of  the  women  of  the 
house  to  set  food  before  him.  An  omission  to  do  this  would 
have  been  a  discourtesy  amounting  to  an  affront.  If  hungry, 
he  ate ;  if  not  hungry,  courtesy  required  that  he  should  taste 
the  food  and  thank  the  giver." 

No  one,  surely,  will  dissent  from  Mr.  Morgan's  assertion 
that  "  the  common  and  substantially  universal  practice  of  this 
custom  shows  generous  dispositions  and  exhibits  traits  of  char« 
acter  highly  creditable  to  the  race ; "  but  it  must,  nevertheless 
be  remembered  that  the  Indian's  hospitality  was  not  so  much  a 
spontaneous  virtue  as  it  was  a  traditional  one  —  the  result  of  a 
settled  communistic  policy. 

Indeed,  this  communistic  principle  not  only  explains  much 


CULTURE  AND    COMMUNISM.  115 

of  the  existent  similarity  in  the  manner  of  living  among  the 
native  races  of  North  America  at  the  epoch  of  discovery, 
but  it  helps  to  explain  numerous  phases  in  Indian  life,  during 
their  gradual  conquest,  that  have  heretofore  been  almost  prob 
lematical. 

The  belief  that  the  Indians  held  in  relation  to  the  freedom 
of  the  land  and  of  its  products  operated,  as  has  been  shown,  in 
a  peculiar  manner  in  their  reception  of  the  white  strangers 
from  an  unknown  land.  Uncertainty  as  to  the  origin  of  these 
newcomers  and  the  inherent  superstition  of  the  savage  mind 
gave  to  their  bounden  duty,  under  their  laws  of  hospitality,  the 
additional  element  of  curiosity. 

Anything  incomprehensible  in  the  Indian  philosophy  was 
adjudged  to  be  supernatural.  These  wonderful  strangers  cased 
in  steel  or  bright  with  gorgeous  clothing,  with  their  tubes  that 
sent  out  thunder  and  lightning,  their  great  "canoes  with 
wings,"  their  prancing  steeds  and  their  commanding  and  asser 
tive  manners  made  each  one  of  them,  to  the  myth-filled  mind 
of  the  savage,  oki  and  manitou,  something  more  than  mortals, 
the  brothers  of  the  powers  of  the  air. 

So,  in  almost  every  instance  of  American  discovery  on 
record,  the  first  explorers  were  made  welcome  after  the  custo 
mary  Indian  method.  De  Soto's  "  Indian  queen,"  and  Ribault's 
garlanded  pillar  on  the  River  May,  Donnacona's  kiss  to  Cartier, 
and  Captain  Barlow's  royal  welcome  at  Roanoke  —  these  were 
but  instances  of  the  invariable  hospitality  that,  wherever  they 
landed,  the  early  discoverers  found  awaiting  them.  Alas,  that 
Christian  civilization  could  so  illy  requite  pagan  courtesy. 

And  yet,  as  has  been  shown,  this  courtesy  was  but  a  matter 
of  duty,  an  unwritten  law  of  the  Indian  state  against  which 
no  one  dared  go  counter. 


n6 


CULTURE   AND    COMMUNISM. 


Improvident  and  neglectful  of  the  future  as  the  Indian 
nature  gradually  became,  this  law  of  hospitality  never  quite 
lost  its  hold  even  where  degeneration  or  civilization  alike 
changed  the  native  character. 


"THE   WHITE   CHIEF." 
CHARLES  THE   FIFTH  OF  SPAIN  —  "LORD  OF   ALL  THE  INDIES." 

An  excellent  illustration  of  this  fact  was  recently  found 
in  the  action  of  an  old  Seneca  chief  who,  becoming  "  civ 
ilized  "  and  well-to-do,  still  kept  up  some  of  the  traditions  of 
his  earlier  days.  His  daughter,  educated  to  the  usages  of  civ 
ilized  life,  acted  as  his  housekeeper.  But  not  even  the  adop- 


CULTURE  AND    COMMUNISM.  117 

tion  of  the  three  regular  daily  meals  of  civilization  could 
move  the  old  chief  from  his  desire  to  have,  according  to 
Indian  custom,  a  constant  supply  of  food  prepared,  to  offer 
the  casual  visitor.  The  Indian  law  of  hospitality  in  his  mind 
far  outweighed  the  white  man's  usages. 

Theory  and  practice  are  vastly  different.  The  commu 
nistic  theory  has  never  furnished  the  basis  for  national  growth, 
nor  has  it  ever  supplied  the  motive  for  a  permanent  or  pro 
gressive  state.  The  early  Christian  church,  itself  at  first  an 
advocate  of  the  community  of  interests,  soon  realized  the  in 
stability  of  such  a  foundation  if  practical  or  cohesive  work 
was  to  be  hoped  for. 

Communism  in  living  and  in  land,  therefore,  may  be  es 
teemed  as  essentially  barbaric.  An  advancing  civilization 
must  of  necessity  admit  of  a  personal  proprietorship  in  prop 
erty  and  in  land  if  lasting  progress  is  to  be  attained.  Only 
the  freeholder  is  the  free  man. 

The  Indian  system  of  living  could  never  make  either  a 
positive  civilization  or  a  coherent  state.  It  required  the  com 
ing  of  a  new  order  of  things  which,  while  overturning,  should 
also  upbuild  upon  a  more  lasting,  because  a  more  substantial 
basis.  This  only  could  ensure  a  strong  and  permanent  state. 

The  lodge  and  palisaded  village,  the  common  household 
and  the  council  fire  must  give  place  to  the  cabin  and  the 
town,  the  privacy  of  individual  families  and  the  senate  house. 

The  white  man's  methods  were  harsh  and  unjust.  Wicked 
men  wickedly  took  advantage  of  the  errors  of  a  wrongly  de 
veloped  system.  But  the  Divine  plan  often  permits  seeming 
wrong  and  apparent  injustice  as  the  forerunners  of  a  real 
progress.  Before  the  advancing  light  of  a  positive  civiliza 
tion  the  virtues  as  well  as  the  vices  of  a  weaker  state  must 


n8  CULTURE  AND   COMMUNISM. 

fall.  Even  as  in  the  days  of  the  conquest  of  Canaan  force 
and  fraud  must  sometimes  be  permitted  as  factors  in  the 
development  of  a  plan  that  neither  force  nor  fraud  can 
wrecjc  or  ruin,  and  even  these  negative  factors  may  be 
turned  to  advantage  as  warning  lights  when  a  free  people 
are  founding  and  up-building  a  mighty  nation. 

We  shall  need  to  read  the  Indian's  story  with  minds  divested 
of  the  white  man's  prejudices  and  the  red-man's  limited  percep 
tions.  The  Lord  in  his  infinite  wisdom  doubtless  intended  the 
Indian's  hard  schooling  for  his  ultimate  good,  but  the  school 
masters,  it  must  be  admitted,  have  been  such  as  might  cause  a 
finite  being  to  question  the  ways  of  the  Infinite  did  he  not  feel 
the  truth  of  Pope's  immortal  lines : 


"  All  Nature  is  but  Art  unknown  to  thee ; 

All  Chance,  Direction  which  thou  canst  not  see; 

AH  Discord,  Harmony  not  understood; 

All  partial  Evil,  universal  Good." 


CHAPTER  VI. 


THE    INDIAN    HOME. 

"  HOME,"  says  Carlyle,  "is  not  poetical,  but  prosaic."  And, 
surely,  nothing  mor£  prosaic  and  less  poetical  than  the  home 
of  the  North  American  Indian  ever  divested  romance  of  its 
glamour,  or  fiction  of  its  charm.  Longfellow's  tidy  wigwam  and 
Cooper's  savage  castle  may  fascinate  and  thrill,  but  they  are  no 
nearer  the  real  fact  than  is  the  lurid  description  of  the  "blood- 
and-thunder"  novelist,  which  decorates  the  red-man's  solitary 
wigwam  with  innumerable  scalps  and  lures  the  civilization-sated 
boy  of  the  East  to  make  a  walking  armory  of  himself  for  the 
conquest  and  destruction  of  the  "  pesky  redskins  "  of  the  West 
ern  plains.  119 


120  THE  INDIAN  HOME. 

The  houses  of  the  North  American  Indians  as  they  were 
first  known  to  the  white  man  varied  greatly  in  construction 
and  in  form.  They  ranged  in  degrees  of  comfort  from  the 
dirt-holes  of  the  California  savage  to  the  frame  house  of  the 
Mandans,  the  long  house  of  the  Iroquois  and  the  stone  house 
of  the  Pueblo,  or  village  Indians. 

These  degrees  of  comfort  represent,  also,  the  three  stages 
of  human  progress  under  which,  as  we  have  seen,  the  native 
Americans  of  the  sixteenth  century  may  be  classified,  viz :  the 
Later  Period  of  Savagery,  the  Older  Period  of  Barbarism  and 
the  Middle  Period  of  Barbarism. 

The  Indian  homes,  however,  in  whatever  scale  of  comfort 
they  may  be  arranged,  all  agreed  in  the  one  general  principle 
of  communistic  living. 

No  Indian  family  of  that  early  day,  so  far  as  can  be  learned, 
ever  owned  or  occupied  as  an  individual  family  any  wigwam, 
hut,  house  or  lodge.  They  herded  in  cramped  and  comfortless 
hovels  or  assumed  something  like  a  decent  disposition  of  the 
proprieties  in  the  divided  apartment  house,  but  always  and 
everywhere  the  lodge  of  the  American  savage  was  the  home  of 
anywhere  from  twenty  to  two  hundred  human  beings,  men, 
women  and  children,  usually  bound  together  by  the  perplexing 
mazes  of  Indian  kinship  or  family  ties. 

The  tribes  living  in  savagery,  built  for  themselves,  as  a 
rule,  the  lowest  order  of  houses.  These  contained  little  in  the 
line  of  comfort,  nor  were  they  anything  more  than  the  merest 
shelter  for  the  inmates.  Such  were  the  round,  domed  earth- 
houses  of  the  Pacific  slope,  in  which,  it  is  estimated,  fully  two 
thirds  of  the  California  Indians  lived ;  the  L-shaped  thatched 
lodge  of  the  Gallinomeros  and  the  Sierra  Indians,  and  the  con 
ical  or  wedge-shaped  huts  of  Southern  California. 


THE   INDIAN  HOME. 


121 


Among  the  tribes  in  the  intermediate  stage  of  progress  — 
the  "  Older  Period  of  Barbarism  "  —  there  was  a  greater  diver 
sity  of  the  primitive  architecture.  Here  were  to  be  found  the 
Ojibwa  cabin  of  elastic  poles  covered  with  bark,  with  its  floor 
space  of  from  ten  to  sixteen  feet  square,  and  a  height  of  six  to 
ten  feet;  the  Da 
kota  huts,  made 
of  pole  frames  cov 
ered  with  bark, 
and  large  enough 
to  accommodate 
several  families, 
(alas,  for  the  poet 
ical  wigwam  of 
"the  ancient  ar 
row-maker,"  pros 
pective  father-in- 
law  of  Hiawatha); 
the  long,  round- 
roofed  house,  fifty 
to  eighty  feet  long, 
and  covered  with 
a  movable  mat- 
ting,  built  by  the 
Algonquin  tribes ; 
the  warm  and 

roomy  houses  of  the  Iroquois,  sometimes  over  a  hundred  feet 
long  and  strongly  made  with  stout  frame-work  of  upright  poles, 
triangular  roof  and  close  covering  of  elm  bark;  and  the  tim 
ber-framed  house  of  the  Mandans  of  the  upper  Missouri,  evi 
dencing  excellent  workmanship  alike  in  design  and  execution. 


THE   DOMED    EARTH-HOUSES    OF  THE    PACIFIC  TRIBES. 


122  THE  INDIAN  HOME. 

The  Village  Indians,  corresponding  to  the  "  Middle  Period 
of  Barbarism,"  possessed  the  most  pretentious  of  all  the  Indian 
dwellings.  In  their  construction  is  seen  the  vestiges  of  that 
earlier  civilization  which  savagery  had  swept  away.  They 
were  such  as  still  constitute  the  now  famous  Zuni  village,  and 
were  groups  of  adobe  or  stone  houses,  built  on  terraces,  two 
hundred  feet  in  length,  and  had  usually  one  story  in  the  front 
and  two  in  the  rear.  They  were  secure,  durable  and  comfort 
able  in  their  way ;  they  were  reached  by  movable  ladders,  and 
were  entered  through  trap  doors  in  the  roofs  and  floors. 

This  class  of  dwelling  represents  the  most  advanced  archi 
tectural  standard  ever  attained  by  the  North  American  Indian. 
It  is,  indeed,  questionable  whether  the  alleged  and  boasted 
Aztec  civilization  ever  produced  anything  higher  in  the  scale 
of  architectural  progress  than  the  stone  and  adobe  houses  of 
the  present  Zufii  Indians. 

The  result  of  this  testimony,  therefore,  would  seem  to  be 
that  the  circumscribed  Indian  wigwam  or  tepee  of  to-day  is  of 
comparatively  recent  construction,  and  that  the  native  Ameri 
cans  at  the  time  of  their  discovery  by  the  white  man  lived  in 
primitive  "  tenement  houses,"  ranging  in  accommodation  and 
comfort  from  absolute  squalor  to  comparative  well-being,  ac 
cording  to  the  stage  of  progress  out  of  savagery  which  the 
inhabitants  had  attained. 

The  importance  of  a  house  depended  upon  the  number  of 
"fires"  it  contained;  for,  around  these  fire-pits  was  congregated 
the  strength  of  each  household,  and,  according  to  the  length  of 
the  house,  was  its  quota  of  fire-pits.  This  principle  of  division 
seems  to  have  had  weight  irrespective  of  location  or  condition. 
The  single  house  of  the  Columbia  River  Indians,  with  its 
length  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet,  its  twenty-four  fires,  its 


THE   INDIAN  HOME.  123 

fifty  families  and  one  hundred  fighting  men,  —  the  long  house 
of  the  Eastern  Iroquois  ("  Men  of  the  Long  House  "),  with  its 
length  of  one  hundred  feet,  its  five  fires,  twenty  apartments  and 
twenty  families,  and  the  veritablefebee-hive  of  the  Village  Indians 
of  the  Southwestern  Pueblos,  with  its  length  of  two  hundred 
feet,  its  terraced  rows  of  apartments,  and  its  household  fires 
alike  testify  to  the  one  general  principle  of  communistic  living 
that,  as  has  been  shown,  was  adhered  to  throughout  the  entire 
North  American  Continent. 

The  importance,  indeed,  of  the  household  fires  should  not 
be  overlooked.  They  furnish  one  of  the  reasons  for  the  com 
munity  of  interests  that  marked  the  native  Americans.  Though 
innured  to  cold,  an  Indian  detested  it,  and  his  greatest  comfort 
was  to  join  in  the  throng  about  the  home  fire-pit.  Diffused 
warmth  was  not  so  practical  a  theory  with  him  as  was  direct 
heat  which  could  be  perceptibly  felt.  "  Ugh,"  grunted  an  ob 
serving  old  redskin  as  he  studied  the  white  man's  ways  and 
apparent  waste,  "  ugh ;  Injun  make  a  little  fire  and  set  close  to 
him ;  white  man  make  a  big  fire  and  set  way  off. " 

In  such  a  home  system  it  would  be  as  impossible  for  the 
inmates  of  a  house  to  be  divided  in  interests  or  to  be  dependent 
entirely  upon  individual  desires,  as  it  would  for  any  of  the 
institutions  of  to-day  to  exist  without  an  executive  head. 

And  here  enters  another  phase  of  Indian  life  quite  at  vari 
ance  with  the  idea  popularly  held  regarding  our  savage  prede 
cessors.  This  is,  the  supreme  importance  of  the  woman  in  the 
Indian  home.  The  "woman  right"  indeed  was  far  more  pro 
nounced  than  it  is  to-day  in  many  so-called  civilized  homes. 

This  influence,  which  the  German  ethnologist,  Professor 
Bachofen,  denominates  gyneocracy  or  the  "  mother  right,"  was 
a  primal  feature  in  Indian  life. 


i24  THE   INDIAN  HOME. 

A  chief  was  great  in  council  or  upon  the  war-path.  A  war- 
rior  might  "  strike  the  war-post "  or  lead  the  terrible  Medicine- 
dance.  His  was  the  arrow  that  with  unerring  aim  could  bring 
down  the  beast  or  bird  needec^for  food,  or  the  foeman  crawling 
to  the  attack.  But,  be  he  chief  or  warrior  or  half-grown  brave, 
he  bent  submissively  before  the  women  of  his  household,  when 
once  he  passed  the  door-flap.  For,  within  the  lodge,  woman 
was  supreme. 

The  very  composition  of  the  kinship  bond  —  shown  to  have 
been  the  basis  of  the  Indian  state  —  is  proof  of  this  supremacy. 
The  power  and  importance  of  a  family  came  from  the  maternal 
side.  A  man  who  married  became  one  of  the  clan  of  his  wife ; 
and  though,  very  rarely,  a  timid  fellow  would  bring  his  bride 
into  his  mother's  lodge,  he  was  very  soon  made  to  feel  that  his 
room  was  preferable  to  his  company. 

In  case  of  separation  or  divorce  it  was  the  husband  and  not 
the  wife  who  left  the  house.  The  female  contingent  always 
ruled  the  lodge,  and  the  man  who  failed  to  do  his  share  as  one 
of  the  common  providers  of  home  necessities  was  speedily 
brought  to  a  realizing  sense  of  the  strength  of  the  "mother- 
right." 

The  Rev.  Ashur  Wright,  who  made  a  study  of  the  Iroquois 
household  economy,  is  authority  for  the  statement  that,  "  no 
matter  how  many  children  or  whatever  goods  a  man  might 
have  in  the  house,  he  might  at  any  time  be  ordered  to  pick  up 
his  blanket  and  trudge.  After  such  an  order  it  would  not  be 
healthful  for  him  to  disobey.  The  house  would  be  too  hot  for 
him;  and  unless  saved  by  the  intercession  of  some  aunt  or 
grandmother,  he  must  retreat  to  his  own  clan,  or,  as  was  often 
done,  go  and  start  a  new  matrimonial  alliance  in  some  other 
clan." 


THE  INDIAN  HOME. 


125 


This  last  sentence  would  seem  to  indicate  that  the  marriage 
tie  was  not  rigidly  binding  among  the  native  American  tribes. 
To  a  certain  extent  this  was  the  fact.  Polygamy,  too,  was  fre 


quent,  though  not 
general,  and,  as  in 
any  land,  civilized 
or  savage,  where 
marriage  is  a  mat 
ter  of  convenience 
or  of  civil  contract 
merely,  the  bond  of  union  was 
but  lightly  held. 

Among  the  Indians  the 
custom  appears  to  have  been 
universal  that  "when  the  hus-  IN  THE  IROQUOIS  COUNTRY* 

band  and  wife  were  satisfied  with  each  other  they  stayed  to 
gether,  but  if  either  party  turned  out  badly  the  other  one 
always  wished  to  abandon  the  unworthy  consort." 


126  THE  INDIAN  HOME. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  even  polygamy,  when  practised,  was 
largely  based  upon  the  kinship  theory.  A  man's  "  plural  wives  " 
were  usually  the  blood  relations  of"  his  first  spouse.  There  was 
therefore  more  of  real  human  feeling  in  the  polygamous  practice 
of  the  North  American  red-man  than  can  be  found  among  the 
followers  of  the  Koran  or  the  even  more  pagan  Book  of  Mormon. 

With  equal  force  was  it  true  that  the  main  bar  to  a  sep 
aration  was  the  kinship  bond.  This  would  have  weight  where 
all  other  ties  failed.  When,  among  the  Omahas,  a  woman  who 
had  married  contrary  to  the  desires  of  her  kin  wished  finally 
to  leave  her  husband,  the  male  kindred  of  her  clan  would  inter- 
'fere.  "  Not  so,"  they  would  say  to  her;  "still  have  him  for  your 
husband ;  remain  with  him  always." 

In  re-marriage,  as  well  as  in  the  systems  of  marriage  and 
divorce,  this  strongest  of  ties  exerted  the  greatest  influence. 
"  Pity  your  brother-in-law,"  a  dying  Ponka  woman  said  to  her 
own  brother ;  "  let  him  marry  my  sister." 

A  home,  therefore,  in  which  the  ties  of  kindred  were  so 
pronounced  a  force,  and  in  which  the  element  of  a  community 
of  interests  made  all  the  lodge-folk  as  one  family,  had  in  it 
many  of  the  possibilities  of  growth  that  a  wholly  savage  race 
could  scarcely  possess.  It  was  through  the  home  that  the 
Indian  was  finding  advancement. 

And  yet  we  must  not  confound  the  Indian's  idea  of  home 
with  our  own  understanding  of  that  most  beautiful  of  words. 
What  is  entirely  satisfactory  to  the  barbarian  is  often  altogether 
repulsive  to  the  civilized  man,  and  in  treating  of  the  Indian's 
home  life  we  must  dismiss  from  our  minds  the  refinement  and 
culture  of  the  white  man's  home-circle,  as  surely  as  we  would 
send  away  from  the  banquet-board  of  civilization,  the  undrawn 
fowl  and  the  roasted  puppy  of  the  Indian's  forest-feast. 


THE   INDIAN  HOME. 


127 


It  is,  therefore,  needless  to  go  to  extremes  for  compari 
sons.  Squalor  is  squalor,  alike  in  the  lodge  of  the  unkempt 
Gallinomero  of  the  Western  Sierra  slopes  and  the  swarming 
den  of  a  modern  tenement  in  Baxter  Street  or  the  Seven  Dials. 
Within  the  sound  of  the  printing  presses  of  civilization  may  be 
found  to-day  foul  and  fetid  rooms,  even  less  inviting  than  were 
the  thatched  lodges  of  the  Sacramento  savages,  in  which  the 
early  explorers  found  the  red  natives  sleeping  on  the  ground 
"  underneath  rabbit  skins  and  other  less  elegant  robes,  and 


AN    IROQUOIS'   LONG-HOUSE. 

amid  a  filthy  clutter  of  baskets,  dogs  and  all  the  trumpery  dear 
to  the  aboriginal  heart." 

But  even  the  tidiness  of  the  old-time  "long  house  "  of  the 
Iroquois,  warm,  roomy,  and  well-ordered  though  it  was,  would 
be  but  slightly  appreciated  by  the  modern  housewife,  over-bur 
dened  with  details  and  cares  of  which  the  Indian  housewife 
knew  nothing.  Minnehaha  had  neither  servants  to  support  and 
superintend,  furniture  to  dust,  carpets  to  sweep,  nor  bric-a-brac 
to  set  in  studied  and  disorderly  array.  The  beds  in  her  house 
were  simply  raised  bunks  built  against  the  walls  of  each  of  the 


128  THE  INDIAN  HOMJK. 

twenty  apartments  or  closets  into  which  a  "  long  house  "  of  "  five 
fires  "  was  divided.  Her  only  household  decorations  were  the 
deer  or  bear-skin  "  portieres  "  in  the  doorways  at  either  end  of 
the  lodge,  or  the  strings  of  dried  squashes,  pumpkins  and  corn 
in  the  ear  that  festooned  the  roof-poles  above  her  head. 

In  such  a  house  of  "  five  fires,'*  or  twenty  apartments, 
twenty  families  would  live.  Each  family  occupied  its  own 
apartment  —  a  sort  of  open  stall  or  closet,  some  six.  or  eight 
feet  wide,  and  facing  the  central  passage. 

Alone  this  central  passage-way  the  fire-pits  were  ranged  at 
regular  intervals,  so  that  every  four  stalls,  two  on  either  side, 
faced  one  of  these  several  fires.  The  mother  of  each  family 
was  responsible  for  the  good  order  and  conduct  of  her  apart 
ment,  and  her  right  and  influence  were  protected  and  strength 
ened  by  the  bond  of  kinship  which  united  all  the  wives  of  a 
household.  Over  every  such  joint  household  a  matron  was  in 
charge.  Her  word  was  law,  and  neither  chief  nor  warrior,  buck 
nor  boy  dared  dispute  her  authority. 

Crops  and  stores  were  in  common  ;  fish  and  game  were 
equally  divided,  and  there  could  be  no  rivalry  in  a  household 
where  personal  acquisition  was  unknown. 

But  one  meal  a  day  was  served;  and  when  the  four  families 
around  each  fire-pit  had  cooked  their  share  the  matron  would 
divide  the  entire  quantity  among  the  several  families  according 
to  their  size  or  their  respective  needs.  What  remained  was 
given,  by  the  matron,  into  the  charge  of  her  assistant  to  be 
kept  until  required. 

Here,  then,  was  primitive  but  orderly  housekeeping*  quite  at 

*  On  this  point  Mr.  Lewis  A.  Morgan,  in  his  careful  study  of  Indian  life  and  customs,  says:  "This  mere 
glimpse  at  the  ancient  Iroquoisplan  of  life,  now  entirely  passed  away,  and  of  which  remembrance  is  nearly  lost,  is 
highly  tuggestive.  It  shows  that  their  domestic  economy  was  not  without  method,  and  it  displays  the  care  and 
management  of  woman,  low  down  in  barbarism,  for  husbanding  their  resources  and  improving  their  condition." 


THE  INDIAN  HOME. 


129 


variance  with  the  charge  of  improvidence  and  carelessness  as 
to  the  things  of  the  morrow  which  has  always  been  cited  as  one 
of  the  chief  defects  of  the  Indian  nature. 

The  improvidence  of  the  Indian  seems,  indeed,  to  have  been 
one  of  the  baleful  effects  of  his  contact  with  civilization.  The 
white  man's  labor-saving  conveniences,  readily  obtained,  in  ex- 
change  for  skins,  destroyed  the  necessity,  which,  up  to  that 
time,  the  Indian  had  always  known,  for  the  laborious  manufac« 
ture  of  bow  and  arrow,  hatchet  of  stone  and  kettle  of  clay,  soft 
fur  garments  and  ground  shell  money.  "  His  guns,  his  traps, 
his  knives,  his  hatchets,  his  outer  garments  and  his  wampum 
money,'*  says  Dr.  Eggleston,  "  were  all  purchased  in  exchange 
for  skins,  and  thus  he  lost  his  skill,  exterminated  his  game,  and 
sacrificed  his  independence." 

But,  if  the  woman  was  supreme  within  the  lodge,  even  in 
this  very  supremacy  was  to  be  found  the  barbaric  theory  oi 
man's  superiority.  It  was  woman's  duty  to  cater  to  her  acknowl- 
edged  lord  and  master.  To  do  this  she  must  control  her  do« 
mestic  affairs  and  thus  serve  him  even  while  governing  and 
guiding  his  household. 

With  the  American  Indian  war  was  the  one  end  and  aim  of 
living.  Clansmen  were  brothers,  but  rival  clansmen  were 
natural  enemies.  This  kinship  of  clans  dates  back  beyond  all 
known  history  of  the  red  men,  and  doubtless  had  its  beginnings 
in  the  first  leagues  of  the  savage  bands  against  the  prosperous 
cities  of  the  so-called  mound-builders. 

So,  too,  from  the  earliest  times,  has  this  rivalry  between  the 
clans  kept  the  American  Indians  in  almost  perpetual  warfare, 
Each  clan  was  believed  by  its  rivals  to  be  possessed  of  some 
supernatural  power  which  could  be  exerted,  with  malign  effect, 
upon  all  hostile  clans.  A  death,  therefore,  in  any  one  clan  was 


THE  INDIAN  HOME. 


considered  the  work  of  some  member  of  a  rival  clan.  Murder, 
according  to  Indian  philosophy,  was  an  injury  solely  to  the 
person  murdered,  and  not  an  offence  to  the  gods.  Being  an 
injury  against  the  dead,  it  remained  for  the  friends  of  the  mur 
dered  man  to  avenge  his  death.  Revenge  therefore  was  lawful, 

and  war,  upon  this 
theory,  was  esteemed 
not  only  as  a  right, 
but  as  a  duty  to  the 
dead. 

This  peculiar  and, 
certainly,  simple 
method  of  reasoning 
will  at  once  show  why 
it  was  that  the  eagle's 
feather  —  symbol  of 
success  on  the  war-path 
—  was  the  prize  which 
every  Indian  lad  hoped 
one  day  to  attain. 
"  The  whole  force  of 
public  opinion  in  our 
Indian  communities," 
says  Mr.  Schoolcraft, 
"  is  concentrated  on 
this  point ;  its  early  lodge-trainings,  its  dances,  religious  rites, 
public  harangues  —  all,  in  fact,  that  serves  to  awaken  and 
fire  ambition  in  the  mind  of  the  savage  is  clustered  about  the 
idea  of  future  distinction  in  war."  * 

*  The  inquiry  might  be  here  pertinent:  In  how  far  does  this  statement  vary  from  one  that  might  be  applied  to 
the  earlier  stages  of  our  boasted  Christian  civilization  ?  And  has  the  deification  of  the  war  spirit  even  yet  ceased 
among  men  ?  The  reflection  of  the  wise  old  Spaniard  Ramirez  holds  to-day  quite  as  strongly  as  when  he  made  it, 


AN    ADMIRER   OF   WARLIKE   PROWESS. 


THE  INDIAN  HOME.  13  x 

Schooled  in  this  belief  it  may  readily  be  seen  that  the 
Indian  woman  would  be  an  even  greater  admirer  of  warlike 
prowess  than  the  warrior  himself.  This  is  but  following  a  law 
of  human  nature,  civilized  as  well  as  savage.  To  see  her  father, 
brother,  husband  or  son  a  dauntless  warrior  was  equally  the 
ambition  and  the  aim  of  the  Indian  woman.  To  this  end  she 
could  allow  no  menial  labor  to  be  performed  by  him  whose  only 
thought  should  be  of  war  and  glory. 

The  cause,  therefore,  of  the  long-decried  but  miscalled 
servitude  of  the  Indian  woman  is  to  be  found  not  in  the  tyranny 
or  mastership  of  the  man,  but  in  the  woman's  own  peculiar 
system  of  logic  and  her  practical  way  of  putting  it  to  the  test. 

The  drudgery  of  Minnehaha  was  her  choice  and  not  her 
obligation.  Hiawatha  must  be  a  hero,  a  wearer  of  the  eagle's 
feather,  a  terror  to  his  enemies,  the  envy  of  his  clansmen.  And 
how  could  a  hero  plant  corn,  or  carry  wood  and  water,  or  perform 
the  menial  duties  which,  from  her  youth  up,  Minnehaha  had 
been  taught  to  esteem  her  own  and  indisputable  province  ? 

Upon  this  theory  the  system  of  female  servitude  among  the 
American  Indians  is  found  to  have  been  no  servitude  at  all. 
A  coward  could  secure  neither  respecf,  assistance  nor  obedience 
from  the  women  of  his  tribe. 

And  this  devotion  was  well  repaid.  The  Indian  would 
I  fight  to  the  death  in  defence  of  his  wife  and  children.  Kind 
ness,  affection  and  mutual  concession  were  the  rule  in  the 
Indian  home,  quite  as  much  as  in  that  of  the  white  man. 
Mention  is  made  in  some  of  the  old  records  of  a  Delaware 
Indian  who  travelled  forty  miles  to  obtain  some  cranberries  for 
his  sick  wife  ;  and,  at  a  time  when  corn  was  scarce,  an  intrepid 

years  ago  :  "  For,  as  far  as  concerns  the  peoples  called  modern,  regarding  them  as  the  nursery  whence  emerged  the 
nations  that  to-day  carry  the  standard  of  civilization,  it  is  very  easy  to  show  that  not  one  of  them  has  escaped  that  bap 
tism  of  blood  which  forms  one  of  the  steps  in  the  scale  of  social  progress  which  none  have  the  privilege  to  omit." 


I32  THE  INDIAN  HOME. 

warrior  willingly  rode  over  a  hundred  miles  of  country  to 
procure  corn  for  his  suffering  family.  When  he  was  able  to 
obtain  only  a  hatful  of  the  coveted  corn  in  exchange  for  his 
horse,  he  unhesitatingly  parted  with  his  horse,  and,  taking  the 
corn,  returned  to  his  home  on  foot. 

The  proverbial  sullenness  and  taciturnity  of  the  Indian 
nature  and  the  Indian  home  are  equally  without  foundation, 
so  far,  at  least,  as  applies  to  the  earlier  era  of  European  dis 
covery. 

Years  of  ill-treatment  and  centuries  of  dishonor  may  have 
soured  the  natural  disposition  of  the  red-man,  as  they  would 
men  of  any  color  or  of  any  land.  The  dispirited  brutes  who 
fret  and  chafe  in  their  cramped  menagerie  cages,  or  look  through 
the  bars  with  sullen  and  vindictive  stare,  are  changed  alike  in 
color,  appearance  and  manner  after  months  and  years  of  con 
finement.  The  free  lords  of  the  forests  and  plains  of  America, 
driven  from  their  homes,  despoiled  of  their  lands,  cheated,  con- 
fused  and  despised  have  become  in  disposition  and  in  manners 
only  what  such  treatment  could  logically  make  them.  "  No 
where,"  says  Mr.  Turner,  "  in  a  long  career  of  discovery,  of 
enterprise  and  extension  of  empire,  have  Europeans  found 
natives  of  the  soil  with  so  many  of  the  noblest  attributes  of 
humanity  as  the  American  Indians.  They  were  possessed  of 
moral  and  physical  attributes  which,  if  they  could  not  have  been 
blended  with  ours,  could,  at  least,  have  maintained  a  separate 
existence,  and  been  fostered  by  the  proximity  of  civilization  and 
the  arts." 

So,  in  the  Indian  homes,  before  the  days  of  deceit,  injustice 
and  greed,  the  red-man  was  a  jovial  and  happy  fellow,  fond  of 
fun  and  feasting ;  loving,  in  his  own  uncultivated  fashion,  his 
wife  and  children,  and  the  free,  unfettered  life  he  had  known 


THE  INDIAN  HOME. 


133 


through  generations;  hampered  as  to  fluency  of  speech  by  a 
restricted  language,  but  given,  because  of  this,  to  metaphor  and 
crude  allegory  that  would  sometimes  rise  even  to  eloquence. 

As  fitted  a  barbaric  nature,  his  fun  was  coarse,  his  play  rude 
and  rough,  his  manners  far  from  courtly  or  refined ;  but,  in  a 
home  based  upon  hospitality  and  freedom  of  possession  —  a  home 
that,  unblessed  by  the  conveniences  and  enjoyments  of  civiliza 
tion,  had  still  its  games  and  sports,  its  ready  story-teller,  its 
folk-lore,  legends,  and  traditions — man  could  not  be  altogether 


THE   MANDAN    LODGE  OF  THE   NORTHWEST. 


brutal,  woman  altogether  a  drudge,  nor  children  entirely  savage. 
"  Home  is  home,  though  it  be  never  so  homely,"  and  the  Indian 
of  the  sixteenth  century  could,  and  doubtless  did,  often  express 
the  very  sentiments  that  have  immortalized  the  verses  of 
John  Howard  Payne,  though  his  only  musical  accompaniment 
was  his  crude  flute  of  reed,  or  his  dismal  and  monotonous  log 
drum  with  its  top  of  thin,  raw  skin. 

As  has  already  been  remarked  comparisons  are  misleading. 
The  points  of  view  from  which  savagery  and  civilization  regard 
things  are  never  identical.  All  natures  have  their  limitations, 


134  THE  INDIAN  HOME. 

dependent,  always,  upon  their  peculiar  and  traditional  environ 
ments. 

The  barbaric  mind  may  be  both  imaginative  and  philo 
sophic,  but  its  basic  senses  are  dull  and  limited  from  the  lack  of 
those  stimulating  preceptive  faculties  that  come  only  from  a 
constant  use  of  the  higher  intellectual  powers.  "  A  savage," 
says  Mr.  Powell,  "  sees  but  few  sights,  hears  but  few  sounds, 
tastes  but  few  flavors,  smells  but  few  odors.  His  whole  sen 
suous  life  is  narrow  and  blunt,  and  his  facts  that  are  made  up 
of  the  combination  of  sensuous  impressions  are  few.  .  .  . 
The  stages  of  discernment  from  the  lowest  savage  to  the  high 
est  civilized  man  constitute  a  series,  the  end  of  which  is  far  from 
the  beginning." 

Upon  this  theory  it  must  be  evident  that  the  American 
Indian,  when  first  known  to  Europeans,  was  on  the  high  road 
toward  civilization,  but  had  as  yet  only  reached  such  a  stage  of 
advancement  as  would  be  deemed  neither  desirable  nor  pro 
gressive  when  viewed  from  the  higher  standpoint  of  civilization. 

And  yet  it  is  from  this  stage  of  semi-advancement  that  we 
must  regard  alike  his  surroundings,  his  home-life,  his  customs 
and  his  acts.  All  progress  is  slow,  and  when,  as,  for  instance, 
in  the  matter  of  equality  at  meals,  the  Indian  made  any  advance 
his  progress  toward  the  modern  idea  of  courtesy  was  but  that 
of  a  laggard. 

Originally,  in  the  communal  houses  common  to  all  our 
tribes,  the  men  ate  first  and  then  the  women  and  children. 
Upon  the  barbaric  idea  of  concession  to  prowess  there  was 
nothing  degrading  in  this.  The  change  in  this  custom  came 
only  by  degrees,  with  the  breaking  up  of  the  old  plan  of  com 
munal  living  and  the  gradual  substitution  of  the  single  house 
and  the  single  family  for  the  former  mode  of  life. 


THE  INDIAN  HOME.  135 

It  is  said,  however,  that  when,  among  the  Senecas,  the 
proposition  that  man  and  wife  should  eat  together  was  solemnly 
decided  upon,  it  was  only  agreed  to  with  this  compromise  — 
that  man  and  wife  should  eat  with  the  same  ladle  from  the  same 
dish,  the  man  taking  the  first  spoonful  and  then  the  woman, 
continuing  thus,  alternately,  until  the  meal  was  finished. 

Thus  the  old  Adam  clung  to  the  new  man ;  and  this  seem 
ingly  insignificant  insight  into  the  Indian  nature  will  be  found 
to  cover  a  profound  fact.  For  it  may  be  regarded  as  an  indica 
tion  of  one  of  the  main  barriers  toward  an  acceptance  of  the 
ways  of  civilization  which,  even  had  the  white  man  proved 
other  than  he  did,  would  still  have  modified  and  retarded  the 
red-man's  intellectual  growth. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


THE    INDIAN    YOUTH. 

To  the  barbaric  mind  endurance 
and  courage  are  synonymous.  Endur 
ance  was  the  first  lesson  learned  by 
the  baby  Indian;  it  was  the  last  act 
of  his  life  as,  bound  to  the  fatal  stake, 
he  laughed  at  the  taunts  of  his  captors 
and  urged  them  to  greater  indignities 
that  they  might  see  how  a  warrior 
could  die. 

No  doubt  times  have  changed,  for 
there  are  those  who  assert,  after  a 

study  of  the  life  of  the  Indians  of  the  Far  West,  that  the  red- 
man  of  to-day  knows  neither  courage  nor  endurance.  But,  in 
the  days  before  the  white  man's  whiskey  and  the  white  man's 
methods  had  destroyed  the  finer  qualities  of  the  red-man's 
nature,  his  chief  characteristic  was  his  superiority  to  physical 
privation  and  suffering. 

The  Iroquois  traditions  tell  of  a  Seneca  lad  who,  while  but 
a  little  fellow,  was  taken  captive  by  the  Illinois.  The  boy  knew 
what  to  expect,  but  braced  himself  to  meet  his  fate  and  prove 
the  value  of  his  Seneca  blood.  "  If  he  can  live  through  our 
tortures,"  said  the  Illinois  chief,  "  he  shall  become  an  Illinois.'1 

136 


THE  INDIAN  YOUTH.  137 

They  held  him  barefoot  upon  the  coals  of  the  council  fire, 
until  his  feet  were  a  mass  of  blisters.  Then,  with  fish-bone 
needles,  they  pierced  the  blisters,  filled  them  with  sharp  flint 
stones  and  bade  the  little  fellow  run  the  gauntlet  for  twenty  yards 
between  two  rows  of  warriors  armed  with  thorn-brier  branches. 

"  His  agony  was  intense,"  says  the  story,  "  but  up  in  his  heart 
rose  the  memory  of  his  tribe."  He  ran  the  fearful  race  and, 
passing  the  goal,  darted  into  the  "  Long  House  "  and  paused 
not  until  he  sank  almost  fainting  upon  the  place  of  honor  — 
the  wild-cat  skin  that  marked  the  seat  of  the  chief. 

"  Good,"  cried  the  Illinois ;  "  he  has  the  stuff  for  a  warrior 
in  him." 

Again  they  bound  him  to  the  stake,  tortured  him  with  fire, 
and  then,  cutting  his  thongs,  put  him  to  the  final  te3t  by  holding 
him  beneath  the  cold  water  of  the  drinking  spring,  again 
and  again,  until  he  was  well-nigh  strangled.  And  still  neither 
complaint  nor  moan  came  from  the  brave-hearted  lad. 

But  when  the  test  was  complete  the  watching  warriors  gave 
a  shout  of  approval. 

"  He  will  make  a  warrior,"  they  cried.  "  Henceforth  he 
shall  be  an  Illinois." 

Then  they  adopted  him  into  their  tribe;  they  re-named  him 
Ga-geh-djo-wa,  and  raised  him  up  to  be  a  chief.  "  And  as  the 
years  passed  on,"  says  the  story,  "  he  was  much  esteemed  for 
his  feats  as  a  hunter,  and  his  strength  and  endurance  were 
by-words  among  the  Illinois." 

In  such  a  display  of  boyish  pluck  as  was  this,  the  young 
Seneca  was  but  carrying  out  the  teachings  of  his  earliest  child 
hood.  The  Indian  baby's  first  lesson,  as  has  been  said,  was  one 
of  endurance.  Strapped  to  a  flat  piece  of  wood  the  little 
pappoose  took  his  first  views  of  life  from  this  painful  posture, 


1 38  THE   INDIAN   YOUTH. 

suspended  from  a  tree  or  secured  to  the  back  of  his  hard 
working  mother. 

One  of  the  cleverest  contributions  to  the  Indian  question 
is  a  recent  "  tract "  prepared  by  a  bright  young  student  of  this 
perplexing  problem.*  It  seeks  to  give  in  direct  and  simple 
phrases  the  backward  view  of  life  and  things  that  the  "  little 
Injun  "  sees  from  its  mother's  back  —  fit  type  of  the  backward 
way  of  looking  that,  for  the  past  two  hundred  years,  has  been 
the  Indian's  lot.  "  I  go  ahead  backward,"  sighs  the  little 
pappoose  ;  "  I  don't  know  what  is  coming,  and  I  can't  dodge  it 
till  it  is  past.  That  is  what  comes  of  going  ahead  backward. 
My  people  are  pretty  much  like  me.  The  old  Mother  Govern 
ment  straps  them  upon  a  board,  and  shoulders  them  around 
from  one  place  to  another.  She  lets  them  live  on  the  hind  side 
of  somewhere  till  somebody  else  wants  it ;  and  then  she  bundles 
them  off  to  the  other  side  of  nowhere,  which  nobody  wants." 

But  though  endurance  was  a  precept  early  instilled,  the 
little  red  baby  was  as  fondly  nurtured  as  is  the  petted  darling 
of  many  a  civilized  home  to-day.  Its  hard  cradle-board  was 
made  comfortable  with  softly  dressed  buckskin,  or  fragrant'with 
a  bed  of  sweet  grass  and  odorous  ribbons  of  the  bark  of  bass 
or  linden  tree.  The  finest  beadwork  that  the  mother  could 
make,  or  the  most  deftly  plaited  reed-splints  and  grass  that  she 
could  braid,  decorated  her  baby's  bed,  and  over  and  over  again 
she  sang  the  little  one  to  sleep  with  her  monotonous  but  rhyth 
mical  lullaby: 

"  Swinging,  swinging, 

Lul-la-by; 

Sleep,  little  daughter,  sleep. 
'Tis  your  mother  watching  by, 
Swinging,  swinging,  she  will  keep; 
Little  daughter, 

Lul-la-by." 
*  "  One  Little  Injun,"  by  Miss  M.  E.  Ditto. 


I    DISCOVERED   FIVE    PAPPOOSES    SLUNG  TO    THE   TREES. 


THE  INDIAN  YOUTH.  14, 

Up  to  two  years  of  age  the  Indian  baby  was  kept  lashed 
to  the  unyielding  board,-which  was  alike  carriage  and  cradle. 
Once  a  day  its  bonds  were  loosed  and  it  was  allowed  to  play 
and  roll  upon  a  blanket  or  the  grass.  When  the  mother 
was  busy  the  board,  baby  and  all,  was  hung  upon  the  most 
convenient  tree  or  placed  in  a  corner  of  the  lodge. 

Mr.  H.  W.  Elliott  relates  that  some  fifteen  or  twenty  years 
ago,  being  one  day  near  to  old  Fort  Casper,  on  the  River  Platte, 
he  paused  to  kneel  and  drink  from  a  stream  he  was  crossing. 
44  Suddenly,"  he  says,  "  my  attention  was  arrested  by  a  succes 
sion  of  queer,  cooing,  snuffling  sounds  that  caused  me  to  peer 
curiously  about  in  the  recesses  of  the  surrounding  birch  and 
poplar  thicket.  Here  I  discovered,  to  the  right  and  just  above 
me,  five  pappooses  slung  to  the  trees,  all  alone  in  their  glory, 
amusing  themselves  by  winking  and  staring  at  one  another, 
apparently  as  happy  as  clams  at  high  water.  But,  unfortu 
nately  for  their  serenity,  they  caught  sight  of  the  pale-face,  and 
with  one  accord,  began  to  howl  in  dismal  and  terrified  accents, 
so  that  in  less  than  a  minute  six  or  seven  squaws  came  crashing 
through  the  underbrush  to  the  rescue.  Happy  mothers  !  It 
was  not,  as  they  had  feared,  a  bear,  and  the  tempest  was  quelled 
at  once." 

At  two  years  of  age,  as  has  been  said,  the  child  was  released 
from  the  imprisonment  of  its  uncomfortable  cradle  and,  accord 
ing  as  it  was  boy  or  girl,  its  real  education  would  begin. 

Even  at  this  early  age  the  difference  in  treatment  accorded 
the  sexes  was  noticeable.  For,  following  the  traditions  of 
their  race,  which  regarded  the  boy  as  the  future  warrior  and 
the  girl  as  the  future  drudge,  all  the  training  of  the  one  and 
all  the  duties  of  the  other  lay  in  the  traditional  course. 

"The  girls,"  says    Mr.  Elliott,  "fall    in    line    behind    their 


142 


THE  INDIAN  YOUTH 


mothers  as  soon  as  they  can  carry  a  five-pound  weight,  and 
become  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water 'before  they  enter 
their  teens." 

"When  she  was  four  or  five  years  old,"  says  Mr.  Doisey, 
"  the  Indian  girl  was  taught  to  go  for  wood,  etc.  When  she 
was  about  eight  years  of  age  she  learned  how  to  make  up  a 
pack  and  began  to  carry  a  small  one  on  her  back.  As  she 
grew  older  she  learned  to  cut  wood,  to  cultivate  corn,  and  other 
branches  of  the  Indian  woman's  work."  This  education  in 
drudgery,  however,  seems  never  to  have  soured  the  disposition 
of  the  little  red-skinned  maid,  for  Mr.  Dorsey  declares  that  she 
"  maintained  the  most  affectionate  regard  for  her  mother  and 
other  kindred." 

From  the  Indian  boy's  earliest  years  his  training  was  such 
as  prophesied  the  future  warrior.  Although  allowed  to  run 

wild    and    to    be 

>     T_  spared     anything 

that  seemed  like 
labor  or  work,  he 
learned  to  swim, to 
run,  to  jump  and 
to  wrestle.  Some 
of  the  southern 
tribes,  such  as  the 
Natchez,  seem 
even  to  have  had 
a  sort  of  master 

AN  EDUCATION  IN  DRUDGERY. 

of  gymnastics   to 

look  after  the  physical  development  of  their  youth.  At  an 
early  age,  too,  the  boy  was  put  to  archery  practice  with  blunted 
arrows  shooting  at  a  target  of  hay,  bunched  at  the  top  of  a 


THE  INDIAN  YOUTH. 


143 


stick,   or   at   the   birds    that   swarmed    about    his   forest   and 
prairie  home. 

When  the  boy  was  about  seven  years  old  his  first  fast  was 
imposed  —  an  all  day's  watch  upon  some  high  or  exposed  point; 
here,  smeared  with  white  clay,  he  kept, 
like  the  boyish  squires  of  the  knightly 
days,  a  sort  of  vigil,  filled  with  contin 
ued  calls  upon  his  selected  manitou  to 
make  him  a  great  man  —  a  warrior. 
These  fasts  increased  in  length  and  in 
tensity  with  the  lad's  years  until  the  age 
of  fifteen  or  sixteen  when,  after  a  five 
days'  fast,  the  troubled  dreams  of  hun 
ger  would  reveal  to  him  some  bird,  beast 
or  reptile  which  was  to  be  esteemed  his 
"medicine" — his  mysterious  protector 
through  life.  This  creature,  whatever 
it  might  be,  must  be  hunted  and  killed 
by  the  boy;  its  skin,  made  into  a  pouch 

'  J  ' 

or  bag,  and  stuffed  with  grass,  was  relig 
iously  sealed,  and  was  worn  or  carried  by  the  young  warrior 
as  his  "medicine  bag"  —  his  materialized  "good  luck,"  without 
which  he  could  have  neither  strength  in  battle   nor  guardian 
care  in  death. 

The  Indian  boy  was  seldom  if  ever  punished  for  disobedi 
ence  or  insubordination.  It  was  esteemed  as  altogether  im 
proper  and  unwise  to  lay  any  chastisement  upon  one  who 
might  in  future  years  be  a  mighty  warrior.  The  mother  was 
the  strongest  advocate  of  this  theory.  Ton-ti-le-augo's  Wyom- 
dot  wife  left  him  and  returned  to  her  people  —  an  unusual  thing 
for  the  wife  to  do  —  because  he  had  given  her  eight-year-old 


DREAMING  OF  HIS  "  MEDICINE.' 


144  THE  INDIAN  YOUTH. 

son  a  moderate  whipping  for  some  offence  committed.  "  She 
acknowledged  that  the  boy  was  guilty  of  a  fault,"  says  Colonel 
Smith,  who  tells  the  story,  "  but  thought  he  ought  to  have  been 
ducked,  which  is  their  usual  mode  of  chastisement.  She  said 
she  could  not  bear  to  have  her  son  whipped  like  a  servant  or 
like  a  slave."  And  so  when  her  husband  went  out  to  hunt 
she  left  his  lodge  in  displeasure  never  to  return. 

The  main  defect  in  the  Indian  education  was,  of  course,  that 
semi-savagery  that  must,  logically,  result  from  a  system  that 
developed  the  combative  rather  than  the  conciliatory  in  both 
boy  and  man.  And  yet  it  is  a  fact  worthy  of  especial  note  that 
the  Indian  boy,  barbarian  though  he  was,  received  and  gave 
due  heed  to  many  a  lesson  in  good  breeding  that  the  boys  and 
girls  of  our  larger  day  .too  frequently  neglect. 

Generosity,  thoughtfulness  for  others,  hospitality,  magna 
nimity,  respect  towards  elders,  abhorrence  of  evil  speech,  truth 
fulness,  temperance,  honor,  honesty,  toleration,  independence, 
pity  for  the  unfortunate,  courtesy  and  humanity  —  these  all 
found  place  in  the  education  of  the  Indian  boy  and  girl  and 
remained  a  part  of  the  Indian  nature  until  that  nature  was 
dwarfed  and  deteriorated  by  the  degradations  of  a  civilization 
presented  to  the  red-man  "  wrong  end  foremost." 

The  student  of  Indian  character  as  it  now  appears  upon 
our  plains  and  in  our  lava  beds  would  scarcely  find  himself 
prepared  to  admit  the  existence  of  any  of  the  above  qualities  in 
the  Indian  of  to-day.  And  yet  the  burden  of  proof  is  all  in 
favor  of  ascribing  to  the  Indian  of  three  centuries  ago  every  one 
of  these  attributes  —  and  others  of  even  nobler  strain. 

Superstition  and  sorcery,  cannibalism  and  cruelty,  a  lax 
morality  and  a  remorseless  spirit  of  revenge  —  all  these  too  the 
Indian  possessed,  and,  as  boy  and  man,  practised  and  adhered 


THE  INDIAN  YOUTH.  145 

to  them.  But  there  is  reason  in  all  things,  and  the  student  of 
human  nature,  progressing  from  the  lowest  types  to  the  highest 
intelligence,  has  been  able  to  discover  a  logical  reason  for  the 
existence  of  these  seemingly  evil  attributes  in  the  composition 
of  the  American  Indian. 

There  are  ceremonial  forms  peculiar  to  the  most  advanced 
phase  of  civilized  life  that  could  by  careful  study  be  traced  to  a 
common  origin  with  those  observances  of  savage  life  which 
civilization  most  abhors.*  It  is  results  not  causes  that  deterio 
rate.  The  cannibalistic  feasts  of  the  red  devotee  (never  for  the 
mere  satisfaction  of  hunger),  the  horrible  scalp-lock  (the  taking 
of  which  has  stained  the  hearths  of  so  many  American  homes 
with  innocent  blood),  and  the  uncouth  ceremonies  attendant 
upon  the  red-man's  burial  sprang,  all,  from  motives  quite  as 
elevating  and  fully  as  philosophic  as  those  that  have  given 
life  and  permanence  to  the  white  man's  most  cherished  rites. 

Indeed,  it  was  the  opinion  of  Father  La  Jeune,  one  of  the 
most  devoted  of  the  earlier  French  missionaries,  that  "  in  point 
of  intellect,"  the  American  red-man  could  be  placed  in  a  high 
rank.  "  The  Indian,"  he  said,  "  I  can  well  compare  to  some  of 
our  own  (French)  villagers  who  are  left  without  instruction. 
I  have  scarcely  seen  any  person  who  has  come  from  France  to 
this  country  who  does  not  acknowledge  that  the  savages  have 
more  intellect  or  capacity  than  most  of  our  peasantry."  The 
French  traveller,  Charlevoix,  was  even  more  emphatic.  "  The 
beauty  of  their  imagination,"  he  says,  "  equals  its  vivacity, 
which  appears  in  all  their  discourses.  They  are  very  quick  at 
repartee,  and  their  harangues  are  full  of  shining  passages  which 
would  have  been  applauded  at  Rome  or  Athens.  Their  elo- 

*  For  a  more  exhaustive  study  of  this  most  interesting  comparison  consult  Dorman's   "  Origin  of  Primitive 
Superstitions." 


146 


THE  INDIAN  YOUTH. 


quence  has  a  strength,  nature  and  pathos  which  no  art  can  give, 
and  which  Greeks  admired  in  the  barbarians." 

A  circumscribed  life  is  always  a  simple  one,  but  such  a  life 
has  its  pleasures,  however  limited,  and  its  diversions,  however 
crude.  The  Indian's  day  had  in  it  much  of  rude  enjoyment ; 
his  games,  though  comparatively  few,  were  heartily  entered 

into,  and  however  high  or  harsh  the 
sport  might  run,  the  player  never  lost 
his  good-nature. 

"  An  Indian  youth,"  observes  one 
writer,  "  although  intensely  interested 
in  a  game  from  beginning  to  end,  ap 
peared  to  be  just  as  well  pleased,  and 
laughed  just  as  heartily,  when  beaten 
as  when  victorious.  If  the  game  was 
a  gambling  one,  as  were  most  of  their 
games  of  skill,  he  would  unconcern 
edly  part  with  his  last  piece  of  clothing,  laughing  as  cheerfully 
as  when  he  commenced  to  play."  And  Mr.  Elliott  in  his  study 
of  Indian  child  life  to  which  reference  has  already  been  made, 
affirms  that  "  Indian  children  are  light-hearted  and  cheerful, 
rippling  with  laughter  and  mischievous  mirth.  They  play  sly 
tricks  upon  the  dogs  and  one  another  incessantly,  and  are  much 
given  to  singing." 

The  boys  had  their  ball  games,  both  "  shinny  "  and  football 
as  well  as  an  incipient  game  of  base-ball ;  they  flew  their  kites 
of  fish  bladders,  spun  their  teetotums,  played  at  tag  and  hide- 
and-seek,  blind-man's-buff  and  hunt  the  slipper.  The  girls, 
though  brought  up  to  work  long  and  hard,  while  the  boys  were 
free  to  come  and  go  as  they  chose,  still  enjoyed  their  dolls  in 
such  leisure  hours  as  they  had,  and  though  girls  and  boys  rarely 


AS    HAPPY   AS   A    WHITE   BABY. 


THE  INDIAN  YOUTH.  147 

played  together,  both  sexes  were  just  as  fond  of  making  mud 
pies  as  are  the  little  folks  of  our  day.  One  word  indeed  in  the 
Omaha  dialect  comes  from  this  childish  disposition  to  play  in 
the  mud.  It  is  the  verb  tigaxe,  meaning  to  make  dirt  lodges, 
and  having,  hence,  the  broader  significance:  to  play  games. 

An  Indian  never  hunted  for  sport.  He  found  no  enjoy 
ment  in  worrying  a  dumb  brute  to  death  for  the  mere  excite 
ment  of  the  chase  or  the  savage  pleasure  of  seeing  it  die. 
Necessity  sent  him  upon  the  track  of  the  game  as  duty  im 
pelled  him  to  follow  the  trail  of  his  enemy.  "His  worst  bar 
barities,"  says  Mr.  Dorman,  "were  committed  at  the  instigation 
of  superstition  ;  and  cruelty,  from  sheer  malignity,  such  as  has 
been  laid  to  his  charge,  was  really  foreign  to  his  nature." 

War,  as  it  was  the  predominant  feature  in  the  Indian  life, 
was  entered  into  and  followed  out  upon  a  system  as  inflexible 
and  methodical  as  holds  among  civilized  nations.  It  was  not, 
as  a  rule,  entered  into  for  purposes  of  personal  revenge  or 
individual  renown,  but  was  undertaken  as  a  concession  to  the 
manes  of  the  tribe's  dead.  Only  by  the  performance  of  the 
Me-da-we,  or  grand  medicine  rites,  or  by  the  vicarious  bestowal 
of  an  enemy's  blood,  could  an  Indian,  as  the  saying  was,  "  wipe 
the  paint  of  mourning  from  his  face." 

The  inter-tribal  wars  projected  for  purposes  of  retaliation  or 
redress  might,  of  course,  partake  of  something  of  a  national 
character,  though  even  these  were  not  unfrequently  the  result 
of  raids  planned  for  this  vicarious  mourning  rite.  But  the 
majority  of  war-parties,  before  the  days  of  the  frontiersman  and 
the  stand  in  defence  of  the  home-land,  were  composed  and 
carried  out  in  deference  to  the  rites  referred  to. 

There  was,  therefore,  as  marked  a  distinction  between  the 
Indian  raid  for  religion  and  his  warfare  for  redress,  as  between 


i48  THE  INDIAN  YOUTH. 

the  border  foray  of  some  Highland  chief  or  German  baron  and 
the  warfare  between  nations  based  upon  political  grievances. 
The  one  was  sudden,  unexpected  and  brief;  the  other  the  result 
of  debate,  forethought  and  negotiation.  The  first  could  be 
started  by  any  single  warrior,  moved  by  devotion  to  his  dead 
or  by  -personal  hatred ;  the  other  called  for  days  of  council,  the 
interchange  of  presents,  an  embassy,  a  demand  for  redress,  and 
the  pipe  of  peace  with  its  fan-like  decoration  of  wrhite-eagle 
feathers,  or  the  calumet  of  war  with  its  fan  of  flamingo  or  other 
red-dyed  feathers,  according  as  the  result  of  the  embassy  should 
be  for  peace  or  war. 

But  whether  for  foray  or  war,  the  warriors  who  went  upon 
the  war-path  were  always  volunteers.  No  chief  could  order  or 
compel  his  tribesmen  to  follow  his  feather  to  the  wars.  Hos 
tilities  once  decided  upon,  a  chief  or  crier  would  make  an 
nouncement  through  the  villages  of  the  tribe  and  invite  the 
warriors  to  the  preliminary  war-dance. 

The  dance  which  has  always  played  so  important  a  part  in 
Indian  life  and  ceremonies  is  but  another  indication  of  the 
common  origin  of  man.  In  savagery,  in  barbarism  and  in  civil 
ization,  wherever  or  however  man  lives  and  moves,  the  dance 
has  place  and  part. 

Originally  a  ceremony  of  superstition  or  of  religion,  traces 
of  which  may  even  be  seen  in  the  kneeling  and  genuflections  of 
modern  Christian  ritualism,  the  dance,  as  such,  is  never  entirely 
relegated  to  the  domain  of  social  pleasure  until  civilization 
emerges  from  barbarism.  Among  the  American  Indians, 
therefore,  as  among  all  other  peoples  in  barbarism,  some  form 
of  dance  has  always  been  inseparable  from  rites  or  ceremonies. 

The  medicine  dance  was  strictly  religious,  described  by  one 
writer  as  analogous  to  the  camp-meeting  fervor  of  some  of  our 


THE  INDIAN  YOUTH. 


149 


modern  church  bodies.  The  scalp-dance  was  ceremonial  and 
superstitious,  every  scalp  taken  being  esteemed  as  just  so  much 
control  over  the  spirit-life  of  the  enemy.  The  war-dance  which 
preceded  the  foray  or  the  tribal  war  was  simply  the  ceremony 
of  enlistment,  in  which,  under  the  excitement  of  the  song  and 
dance,  warrior  after  warrior  should  be  induced  to  "  strike  the 


THE   SCALP-DANCE. 


war-post "  and  thus    signify  his  intention    of   taking   the  field 
against  the  enemies  of  their  tribe. 

The  Indian  warfare  was  one  of  surprises  and  ambuscades. 
A  land  of  forest  and  of  thicket  made  such  a  system  not  only 
possible,  but  imperative.  The  multitude  of  tribal  divisions, 
and  the  small  proportionate  population  of  the  land  kept  the  real 
warriors  limited  in  numbers.  There  were  no  Indian  armies. 


'5° 


THE  INDIAN  YOUTH. 


This  made  the  natives  also,  as  one  writer  has  expressed  it, 
"  economical  of  their  lives,"  and,  except  in  the  cases  of  confeder 
ated  tribes,  who  combined  for  both  defensive  and  offensive  war 
fare,  the  losses  on  any  raid  were  comparatively  slight.  If  the 
tribe  or  village  attacked  proved  too  strong  for  the  assailants, 
discretion  was  judged  the  better  part  of  valor,  and  a  retreat 
was  ordered. 

The  speech  of  an  old  Natchez  warrior  to  the  younger 
braves  about  to  set  out  upon  the  war-path  would  seem  to  out 
line  the  whole  theory  of  Indian  warfare. 

"  Now,  my  brothers,"  he  said,  "  depart  with  confidence.  Let 
your  courage  be  mighty,  your  hearts  big,  your  feet  light,  your 
eyes  open,  your  smell  keen,  your  ears  attentive,  your  skins 
proof  against  heat,  cold,  water  and  fire.  If  the  enemy  should 
prove  too  powerful,  remember  that  your  lives  are  precious,  and 
that  one  scalp  lost  by  you  is  one  cause  of  shame  brought  upon 
your  nation.*  Therefore,  if  it  be  necessary,  do  not  hesitate  to 
fly,  and,  in  that  case,  be  as  wary  as  the  serpent,  and  conceal  your 
selves  with  the  skill  of  the  fox,  or  of  the  squirrel.  But  although 
you  run  away,  do  not  forget  that  you  are  men,  that  you  are  true 
warriors,  and  that  you  must  not  fear  the  foe.  Wait  awhile,  and 
your  turn  will  come.  Then,  when  your  enemy  is  in  your  power, 
and  you  can  assail  him  with  advantage,  fling  all  your  arrows 
at  him,  and,  when  they  are  exhausted,  come  to  close  quarters, 
strike,  knock  down,  and  let  your  tomahawks  be  drunk  with 
blood." 

Inured    by  fast   and    vigil,  by  tests    of  endurance   and   of 

skill,  by  athletic  games  and  the   education  which   a  hunter's 
life  gave   in   abstinence,  suffering,  danger,   and    endurance    of 

*  It  was  customary  to  bear  home  the  bodies  of  the  fallen,  or,  at  least,  their  scalps,  rather  than  permit  any  tro 
phies  or  proofs  of  victory  to  remain  in  hostile  hands.  This  custom  was  due  to  the  theory  already  referred  to,  that 
the  possession  of  any  portion  of  a  person  gave  his  rival  endless  power  over  him,  alive  or  dead. 


THE  INDIAN  YOUTH.  151 

fatigue,  the  Indian  lad  grew  to  manhood  longing  for  the  time 
when  he  too  might  strike  the  war-post  and  make  for  himself  a 
name  among  the  warriors.  To  this  end  his  mother  and  his 
sisters  toiled  uncomplainingly,  and  his  father,  almost  from  baby 
hood,  initiated  him  in  all  the  ways  of  war.  He  learned  the 


ON   THE   WAR-TRAIL. 


language  of  the  grass  and  of  the  sky,  the  wonderful  and  intri 
cate  system  of  sign  communication,  the  minutest  details  of 
woodcraft  and  the  keenest  methods  of  trail-seeking  and  of 
scent,  primarily,  for  use  in  hunting,  but  ultimately  for  success 
upon  the  war-path. 


i52  THE  INDIAN  YOUTH. 

But,  underlying  all  this  barbaric  education,  was  its  basis 
of  superstition  upon  which  has  always  rested  the  savage  and 
barbaric  nature.  Fear,  which  was  the  prevailing  sentiment 
among  the  American  red-men,  permeated  all  their  beliefs  and 
colored  all  their  customs.  And  this  was  not  physical  coward 
ice,  it  was  dread  of  the  supernatural.  The  Indian  feared  the 
control  of  evil  spirits  while  living,  and  doubly  feared  their 
dominion  when  he  should  be  dead.  Half  his  life  was  passed 
in  the  endeavor  to  baffle  or  propitiate  them.  As  Mr.  Dor- 
man  remarks,  "the  Indian's  worst  barbarities  were  committed 
at  the  instigation  of  superstition,"  and  in  the  horror  of  the 
scalping-knife  and  of  the  torture-stake  we  are  to  see  not  the 
pitiless  malignity  of  a  savage  mind,  but  a  blind  and  frenzied 
concession  to  an  undefinable  fear  of  consequences  which  had 
its  root  far  back  in  the  grosser  and  still  more  brutal  days  of 
primeval  savagery. 

But,  though  he  might  be  full  of  superstitious  notions,  the 
personal  bravery  of  the  American  Indian  of  earlier  days  is  a 
matter  of  historic  fact.  The  moral  decay  of  a  race  implies  also 
the  degradation  of  its  finer  personal  qualities.  Bravery  and 
courage  are  lost  as  honesty  and  manliness  decline,  and  the 
deterioration  of  the  red  race  of  America  is  one  of  the 
saddest  evidences  in  proof. 

The  Indian  lad  of  to-day,  in  tepee  or  on  reservation,  has 
the  same  lofty  contempt  of  manual  labor  that  his  ancestors 
possessed.  But  with  this  he  possesses  none  of  the  old-time 
incentives  to  manly  endeavor,  to  personal  prowess,  or  to 
brave  and  daring  deeds.  To  lie,  to  cheat,  to  beg,  to  steal, 
to  live  without  work  and  to  die  as  does  the  brute,  consti 
tute  in  far  too  many  cases  the  round  and  the  desire  of  the 
Indian's  life,  save  only  where  some  unselfish  and  strong- 


THE  INDIAN  YOUTH.  153 

hearted  friends  of  humanity  seek  to  educate  and  lead  him 
into  a  better  and  more  helpful  way  of  living. 

But  with  the  loss  of  manhood  came  the  loss  of  valor,  and 
one  of  the  earliest  signs  of  this  decline  was  the  strain  of 
personal  cowardice  that,  superinduced  by  a  desire  for  the 
white  man's  whiskey,  gradually  became  a  new  factor  in 
Indian  nature. 

"  White  men  who  have  dwelt  all  their  lives  with  the 
Indians,"  says  the  Earl  of  Dunraven,  "  have  to  confess  that 
they  know  very  little  about  their  inner  lives,  and  understand 
nothing  of  the  hidden  springs  of  action  and  of  the  secret 
motives  that  impel  them  to  conduct  themselves  in  the  strange 
and  inexplicable  manner  they  sometimes  do." 

There  was  much  in  the  earlier  Indian  character  that 
recalls  those  still  older  barbarians  —  the  Greeks  and  Trojans 
of  whom  Homer  sung: 

"  O  friends,  be  men,  and  let  your  hearts  be  strong, 
And  let  no  warrior  in  the  heat  of  fight 
Do  what  may  bring  him  shame  in  others'  eyes  ; 
For  more  of  those  who  shrink  from  shame  are  safe 
Than  fall  in  battle,  while  with  those  who  flee 
Is  neither  glory,  nor  reprieve  from  death." 

A  certain  old  man,  so  runs  the  Omaha  story,  had  been 
very  brave  in  his  youth ;  he  had  gone  many  times  on  the 
war-path,  and  had  killed  many  persons  belonging  to  different 
tribes.  His  only  children  were  two  young  men.  To  them 
he  gave  this  advice  :  "  Go  on  the  war-path.  It  will  be  good 
for  you  to  die  when  young.  Do  not  run  away.  I  should 
be  ashamed  if  you  were  wounded  in  the  back ;  but  it 
would  delight  me  to  learn  of  your  being  wounded  in  the 
breast."  By  and  by  there  was  war  with  another  tribe,  and 
the  two  young  men  took  part  in  it.  Their  party  having 


1 54  THE  INDIAN  YOUTH. 

been  scared  back,  both  young  men  were  killed.  When  the 
men  reached  home  some  one  said,  "  Old  man,  your  sons  were 
killed."  "Yes,"  said  he,  "that  is  just  what  I  desired.  I 
will  go  to  see  them.  Let  them  alone ;  I  will  attend  to 
them."  He  found  his  eldest  son  wounded  all  along  the 
back,  but  lying  with  his  face  toward  home.  "  Wa ;  wa ! " 
said  he ;  "  he  lies  as  if  he  felt  a  strong  desire  to  reach 
home !  I  said  heretofore  that  you  were  to  lie  facing  that 
way ; "  and,  taking  hold  of  the  arms,  he  threw  the  body  in 
the  other  direction,  with  the  face  toward  the  enemy.  He 
found  his  younger  son  wounded  in  the  breast,  and  lying 
with  his  face  toward  the  foe.  "Ho!  this  is  my  own  son," 
said  he.  "  He  obeyed  me."  And  the  father  kissed  his  dead 
boy  and  bore  his  body  home. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

MANNERS     AND     MATERIALS. 

THE  domestic  life  of  any  people  is  the  surest  index  to 
its  history.  Only  as  the  home  element  assumes  a  definite 
and  developing  individuality  is  real  progress  possible.  The 
brute  beast  simply  exists  and  multiplies.  Brute  man  does  the 
same,  until  the  soul-power,  long  lying  dormant,  begins  to 
assert  its  supremacy.  And,  as  the  family  instinct,  becom 
ing  something  more  than  merely  brutish  desire,  gradually 
develops  the  best  faculties  of  man  —  affection,  pride,  self- 
sacrifice,  devotion  —  and  thus  leads  the  brute  away  from  the 
beast,  so  may  we  mark  the  advance  of  a  people  out  of  abso 
lute  savagery  toward  an  enduring  civilization. 

The  story  of  the  American  Indian  is  the  story  of  just 
such  an  advance.  Even  the  superficial  civilization  in  which 
the  red-men  had  a  place  and  which  they  themselves  over 
threw  doubtless  had  the  family  idea  at  its  base ;  but,  because 
of  its  lack  of  the  element  of  loving  self-helpfulness  without 
which  the  family  can  never  grow  into  a  perfect  nationality, 
this  pseudo-civilization  relapsed  into  savagery. 

There  is  little  doubt  that  the  family  life  of  the  Iroquois, 
the  Ojibway  and  the  Cherokee  had  in  it  more  of  real  heart- 
affection  than  had  the  home  life  of  the  Aztec  and  the 
Mound-builder  whom  they  overthrew. 

155 


156  MANNERS  AND  MATERIALS. 

•m 

And  yet,  as  the  preceding  chapters  have  shown,  this 
family  life  of  the  Indian  though  it  exhibited  affection,  care- 
taking,  self-sacrifice  and  pride,  was  wrongly  centered  and  lacked 
still  the  vital  element  of  unselfishness  without  which  no  home 
system  can  stand. 

Husband  and  father,  brother  and  son  thought  more  of 
personal  glory  and  prowess  than  of  the  comfort  and  well- 
being  of  those  whose  happiness  should  have  been  their 
especial  care.  And  even  the  woman  element  in  the  home 
wasted  its  energies  upon  laborious  details,  from  a  mistaken 
sense  of  personal  proprietorship  in  the  valor  rather  than  the 
love  of  the  man.  There  was,  thus,  none  of  that  mutual 
sharing  of  sympathy  and  support  that  is  necessary  for  a 
happy  home. 

The  Indian  woman's  idea  of  the  future  life  consisted  only 
in  the  relief  from  care  and  drudgery  that  it  would  bring.  "  Oh, 
that  I  were  dead, '  many  an  Indian  woman  has  been  heard  to 
say,  "  for  then  I  shall  have  no  more  trouble." 

There  are,  however,  many  indications  from  which  it  may  be 
inferred  that  there  was  prevalent  among  Indian  women  a  yearn 
ing  for  a  broader  equality  than  that  based  simply  upon  labor 
and  valor. 

We  have  seen  how  advanced  was  this  equality  among  the 
more  intelligent  tribes,  such  as  those  constituting  the  Iroquois 
league,  and,  even  among  the  lowest  type  of  the  California  sav 
age  were  found  evidences  of  this  desire  that  would  be  ludicrous 

o 

were  they  not  so  sadly  real.  Mr.  Stephen  Powers  regards  as  a 
significant  fact  the  "  almost  universal  prevalence,  under  various 
forms,  of  a  kind  of  secret  league  among  the  men,  and  the  prac 
tice  of  diabolical  orgies,  for  the  purpose  of  terrorizing  the 
women  into  obedience.  It  shows,"  he  continues,  "  how  they 


6 


o      . 

a 


MANNERS  AND  MATERIALS.  159 

(the  women )  were  continually  struggling  up  toward  equality, 
and  to  what  desperate  expedients  their  lords  were  compelled  to 
resort  in  order  to  keep  them  in  due  subjection." 

Mr.  Bancroft,  after  an  exhaustive  study  of  the  Native 
Races,  gives  as  his  opinion  that  "  it  is  among  tribes  that  live  by 
the  chase,  or  by  other  means  in  which  women  can  be  of  service, 
that  we  find  the  sex  most  oppressed  and  cruelly  treated."  In 
proportion  to  their  usefulness  therefore  was  their  degradation  — 
sure  sign  that  the  real  home  element,  based  on  mutual  help,  had 
no  place  in  the  Indian  state. 

And  yet,  as  there  were  signs  of  a  yearning  for  more  real 
equality  there  were  indications  also  that  this  equality  might 
some  day  have  been  secured.  Some  women,  like  We-ta-moo  of 
Pocasset,  whom  the  English  called  the  warrior-queen,  were  able 
to  assert  and  to  maintain  their  independence  and  supremacy,* 
and  among  the  progressive  Iroquois  the  women  of  the  tribe 
while  they  had  no  absolute  voice  in  the  council  were  represented 
by  orators  who  were,  on  this  account,  known  as  "  squaws'  men." 
Sa-go-ye-wat-ha,  the  Seneca  —  otherwise  known  as  Red  Jacket 

—  is  said  to  have  won  no  little  reputation  for  himself  in  this 
capacity  and,  as  the  representative  of  the  women  of  his  tribe,  to 
have  spoken  eloquent  words  for  peace  and  independence  and 
thus  to  have  laid  the  foundation  of  his  future  eminence. 

It  was  by  such  a  representation  as  this  that  the  Iroquois 
woman  could  oppose  a  war  or  secure  a  peace  and  in  the  sale  of 
land,  they  claimed  a  special  right  to  exercise  their  prerogative 

—  for,  as  they  claimed,  "the  land  belongs  to  the  warriors  who 

*  The  "  Old  Indian  Chronicle  "  of  Massachusetts  says  of  We-ta-moc :  "  She  is  as  potent  a  prince  as  any  round 
about  her,  and  hath  as  much  corn,  land  and  men  at  her  command;  "  and  Cooke's  "Virginia  "  declares  that  the 
aboriginal  Virginians  were  content  to  be  ruled  by  women.  "Of  this  singular  fact,"  says  Mr.  Cooke,  "there  is  no 
doubt,  and  it  quite  overthrows  the  general  theory  that  the  Indian  women  were  despised  subordinates."  Pow-ha-tan's 
"  kingdom,"  as  it  was  called,  would,  so  it  was  stated,  eventually  descend  to  his  sisters  though  the  chief  had  sons 
living, 


160  MANNERS  AND  MATERIALS. 

defend  and  to  the  women  who  till  it."  And  this  tillage  of 
the  land  was  no  small  thing.  As  it  occupied  much  of  a  woman's 
life,  it  gave  to  the  Indian  the  means  of  existence  through  the 
winter  months  when  fish  and  flesh  were  hard  to  obtain,  or 
absolutely  unattainable. 

To  the  labors  also  of  these  female  agriculturists  is  America 
to-day  indebted  for  a  knowledge  of  some  of  the  most  important 
vegetable  products,  as  well  as  for  some  of  the  dishes  now  con 
sidered  as  strictly  American. 

The  corn  that  is  even  now  the  staple  American  breadstuff, 
was  first  brought  from  some  unknown  point  in  the  West  along 
the  paths  of  Indian  migration.  It  speedily  became  the  Indian 
staple  and  was  used  in  many  ways  as  yet  unknown  to  us.  It 
was  planted,  harvested  and  cooked  by  the  Indian  women,  and 
from  the  well-tilled  Seneca  corn-patches  came  the  first  sweet- 
corn  ever  known  to  man. 

From  these  indefatigable  women-workers  came  also  our 
knowledge  of  the  existence  of  such  necessaries  as  squashes  and 
pumpkins,  beans  and  melons.  The  Indian  women  were  the 
first  to  serve  the  smoking  meal  of  baked  beans,  and  to  teach  the 
colonists  from  over-sea  how  to  prepare  the  hoe  cake  and  the  ash 
cake,  pone  and  hominy,  samp  and  succotash,  gruel  for  the  sick 
room,  and  the  toothsome  "  corn  that  flowers,"  dear  to  our  child 
hood  as  "  pop  corn." 

With  tools  that  were  as  primitive  as  are  all  aboriginal  im 
plements,  these  women-farmers  of  old  America  yet  made  their 
garden-patches  yield  a  plentiful  increase.  But  in  the  absence 
of  anything  like  systematic  commercial  intercourse,  this  yield 
was  limited  to  the  tribal  garden-patches,  and  needed  to  be  used 
to  the  best  possible  advantage.  There  was  no  waste  among  the 
Indians  until  the  white  man  fostered  it. 


MANNERS  AND  MATERIALS.  161 

The  seasons  of  want,  from  long  winters  or  dry  summers,  of 
necessity  made  the  Indian  provident,  and,  as  Dr.  Eggleston 
says,  "  None  know  better  than  the  red-men  with  what  last 
resorts  to  sustain  life  in  time  of  famine." 

But,  if  the  women  were  the  farmers,  the  men  were  the 
hunters.  Food,  as  one  of  their  chroniclers  says,  was  precious 
to  the  Indians;  and  meat,  quite  as  much  as  corn,  was  the  staff 
of  life  among  them.  Indeed,  it  played  a  prominent  part  in 
the  economy  of  their  domestic  relations.  "  Squaw  love  to  eat 
meat,"  an  old  Indian  once  declared;  "no  husband  —  no  meat. 
Squaw  do  everything  to  please  husband ;  he  do  everything  to 
please  squaw  —  all  live  happy." 

In  the  more  advanced  tribes,  where  a  higher  necessity 
demanded  more  forethought  than  General  Fremont  found,  for 
instance,  in  some  of  the  Columbia  River  tribes  who,  as  he  says, 
"grew  fat  and  became  poor  with  the  salmon,"  the  yields  and 
harvests  of  the  woman-tilled  soil  were  augmented  by  the  fish 
and  flesh  which  were  secured  by  the  bone  fish-hook  and  grit 
stone  hatchets,  the  fibre-woven  nets  and  the  unerring  bow  and 
arrow  of  the  wary  hunter. 

The  tomahawk  seems  really  to  have  been  a  creation  of 
the  white  traders,  and  not  an  aboriginal  weapon.  The  war 
club  of  hard  wood,  sometimes  edged  with  flint,  which  certain  of 
the  Southern  Indians  used,  may  have  suggested  the  white 
man's  tomahawk,  but  before  that  invention  the  Indian's  armory, 
as  a  rule,  contained  only  the  bow  and  arrow. 

So  great,  says  Mr.  Dorsey,  was  their  skill  in  archery,  that 
they  frequently  sent  their  arrows  completely  through  the 
bodies  of  the  animals  at  which  they  shot,  and  there  have  been 
instances  reported  when,  so  great  was  the  force  of  this  flight  of 
the  arrow,  with  its  sharp  point  of  deer-horn  or  of  the  spur  of  the 


162 


MANNERS  AND  MATERIALS. 


wild  turkey,  that  it  has  not  only  passed  entirely  through  the 
body  of  a  hunted  buffalo,  but  has  even  gone  flying  through  the 
air  far  beyond  the  wounded  animal. 

Each  hunter  had  his  own  distinguishing  mark  of  proprietor- 


A   LESSON    IN   ARCHERY. 


ship  upon  his  arrows/so  that  he  could  recover  his  own  again, 
or  could  tell  which  animals  he  had  slain.  The  "  that  was  my 
shot"  quarrels  of  the  hunting  field  were  unknown  to  the  Indian 
marksmen. 

Many  of  the  tribes  understood  the  art  of  dressing  hides  to 


MANNERS  AND  MATERIALS.  163 

perfection.  The  skins  of  the  buffalo,  deer,  beaver  and  other 
animals,  made  soft  and  pliant  by  the  skilful  manipulation  of  the 
women,  were  manufactured  into  comfortable  winter  clothing  by 
the  help  of  the  awl-like  needles  formed  from  the  small  and  thin 
bone  in  the  leg  of  the  heron  or  in  the  larger  sort  of  fish. 

The  Natchez  Indian  as  also  some  among  the  Southwestern 
villages,  or  "pueblos,"  understood  the  art  of  dyeing  in  various 
colors,  and  made  their  skin  robes  brilliant  in  alternate  stripes  of 
white  and  yellow,  red  and  black. 

The  canoes  made  of  fire-hollowed  logs  or  of  strips  of  birch 
bark  deftly  laced  and  ribbed  were  the  only  means  of  navigation 
known  to  the  Indian;  but  these  varied  from  the  light  shallops 
of  the  East  to  the  forty-foot  war-boats  of  the  Pacific  tribes. 

The  red-men  were  expert  paddlers  and  good  near-shore  navi 
gators  but,  so  great  was  their  confidence  in  their  ability  to 
"paddle  their  own  canoe,"  that  they  sometimes  ventured  be 
yond  the  bounds  of  caution.  We  have  it  on  record  that  certain 
of  the  Carolina  Indians,  disgusted  with  the  treachery  and  bad 
faith  of  the  white  traders,  determined  to  remedy  the  abuses  by 
trading  direct  with  the  consumers.  They,  therefore,  secretly 
fitted  out  several  great  canoes  and  dispatched  them  with  their 
freights  -and  crews  for  England.  But  the  wide  ocean  was  as 
remorseless  as  the  white-man's  treachery,-  and  the  poor  paddlers 
were  never  heard  of  more. 

It  has  been  said  that  there  was  no  system  of  commercial 
intercourse  among  the  American  Indians.  This,  so  far  as  it 
relates  to  a  uniform  and  organized  method  of  barter  and  sale, 
was  undoubtedly  the  fact,  and  yet  the  well-worn  and  connecting 
trails  and  the  preeminence  given  to  one  especial  article  of  Indian 
manufacture  would  indicate  the  existence  of  some  recognized 
system  of  business  inter-communication. 


1 64  MANNERS  AND   MATERIALS. 

From  the  remotest  antiquity  the  use  of  shells  as  ornaments 
among  mankind  has  been  universal.  The  earliest  among  men, 
obtaining  their  food  from  the  ocean  or  the  great  lakes,  put  the 
larger  shells  from  which  they  extracted  their  food,  to  practical 
use  as  cups  and  dishes. 

As  these  shells  were  broken  or  thrown  aside  some  more 
reflective  mind,  in  which  was  slowly  awakening  the  first 
gleams  of  the  artistic  faculty,  conceived  the  idea  of  perforating 

and  stringing  the  thicker  portions  of 
the  broken  shells;  and  thus  was  origi 
nated  the  use  of  personal  ornaments  — 
possibly  the  earliest  necklaces  and  pen 
dants. 

Gradually  these  rude  strings  of 
shells,  becoming  attractive  to  the  savage 
eye,  obtained  a  certain  value  as,  in  the 
course  of  migration  or  of  barter,  they 

found  their  way  into  localities  remote  from  their  source  of 
supply.  Increasing  demand  led  to  more  careful  manufacture, 
and  thus  was  brought  about  that  crude  attempt  at  a  circula 
ting  medium  which  became  at  last  an  established  article  of 
savage  manufacture. 

Through  all  the  changes  of  peoples  and  communities  these 
coveted  bits  of  shell  held  place  and  prominence,  appearing, 
finally,  in  historic  times,  as  the  chief,  and  indeed  the  only 
material  approaching  the  standard  of  permanent  value  which 
among  civilized  man  has  always  been  given  to  the  precious 
metals  and  the  more  precious  stones. 

Certain  choice  sea  or  lake  shells  laboriously  ground  and 
perforated  to  the  size  of  "  a  wheat  straw,"  were  variously  colored 
and  strung  upon  a  single  strand  of  vegetable  fibre,  a  strip  of 


A    WAMPUM    NECKLACE. 


MANNERS  AND  MATERIALS.  165 

buckskin  or  a  bit  of  sinew.  These  strings  of  shell  beads  grew 
in  value  as  the  demand  for  them  increased,  and  though  known 
under  a  variety  of  names,  as  diverse  as  the  native  dialects,  they 
have  retained  most  widely  their  Algonquin  name  of  wam-pum- 
pe-age  ("  the  belt  of  rounded  shells"),  a  word  abridged  for 
English  use  into  the  well-known  name  of  Wampum. 

From  the  red  denizens  of  Labrador  to  their  far-off  brethren 
of  Lower  California,  in  the  Mississippi  valleys,  and  from  the 
Lakes  to  the  Gulf,  was  this  precious  wampum  used.  It  was  the 
Indian's  most  coveted  possession.  Even  at  a  recent  date  the 
tribes  of  the  Columbia  River,  according  to  Lewis  and  Clark, 
would  "  sacrifice  their  last  article  of  clothing  or  their  last 
mouthful  of  food "  to  procure  it ;  and  John  Lawson,  writing 
long  ago,  declared :  u  This  is  the  money  with  which  you  may 
buy  skins,  furs,  slaves,  or  anything  the  Indians  have ;  it  being 
their  mammon  (as  our  money  is  to  us)  that  entices  and  per 
suades  them  to  do  anything,  and  part  with  everything  they 
possess,  except  their  children  for  slaves.  .  .  .  With  this 
they  buy  off  murders ;  and  whatsoever  a  man  can  do  that  is  ill, 
this  wampum  will  quit  him  of  and  make  him,  in  their  opinion, 
good  and  virtuous,  though  never  so  black  before." 

Probably  in  no  land  and  among  no  race  of  men  has  an 
article  of  apparently  so  small  an  intrinsic  value  become  of  such 
immense  importance,  and  none  surely  was  ever  put  to  so  many 
uses. 

Aside  from  its  circulation  as  a  sort  of  natural  currency  * 
the  wampum  of  the  American  Indians  was  used  by  them  for 

*  Mr.  Morgan,  it  is  true,  claims  that  there  is  no  sufficient  reason  for  calling  wampum  the  "  money  of  the  Indian," 
or  for  the  assertion  that  they  ever  made  it  an  exclusive  currency.  "There  is  however  no  doubt,"  he  says,  "  that  it 
came  nearer  to  a  currency  than  any  other  species  of  property  among  the  Indians,  and  its  transit  from  hand  to  hand 
became  so  easy  that  everyone  could  be  said  to  need  it."  Mr.  William  H.  Holmes,  however,  in  an  exhaustive  study 
of  the  ancient  American  "  art  in  shells,"  holds  that  'he  shells  used  as  wampum  did  have  a  fixed  and  uniform  value 
and  formed  a  natural  currency. 


1 66  MANNERS  AND   MATERIALS. 

personal  adornment,  for  the  decoration  of  costumes,  robes,  the 
cradles  of  their  children  and  the  grave-clothes  of  their  dead. 
It  took  the  place  of  written  records,  *  and  stood,  by  the  wonder 
ful  power  of  memorizing  possessed  by  certain  of  the  red-men,  as 
the  record  of  histories,  laws,  treaties  and  speeches.  It  was  a 
method  of  communication  between  friendly  and  hostile  tribes, 
it  was  used  in  connection  with  compacts,  agreements,  and  con 
tracts,  in  opening  and  closing  councils,  as  proof  of  authority 
and  credentials,  in  marriage  feasts  and  at  funerals,  for  summon 
ing  councils,  solemnizing  oaths,  declaring  war  and  proclaiming 
peace. 

Mr.  Brice  in  his  description  of  an  Indian  council  held  in 
the  Muskingum  valley,  gives  the  following  report  of  a  speech 
in  council  accompanied  by  the  delivery  of  wampum  belts. 
Each  sentence,  he  says,  was  pronounced  with  great  solemnity 
and  confirmed  by  the  delivery  of  a  belt  of  wampum : 

.  "  Brothers,  with  this  belt  I  open  your  ears  that  you  may  hear 
—  with  this  I  remove  grief  and  sorrow  from  your  hearts  —  with 
this  I  draw  from  your  feet  the  thorns  that  pierced  them  as  you 
journeyed  thither  —  with  this  I  clean  the  seats  of  the  council- 
house,  that  you  may  sit  at  ease  —  with  this  I  wash  your  head 
and  body,  that  your  spirits  may  be  refreshed  —  with  this  I  con 
dole  with  you  on  the  loss  of  the  friends  who  have  died  since  we 
last  met  —  and  with  this  I  wipe  out  any  blood  which  may  have 
been  spilt  between  us." 

The  value  and  influence  of  this  Indian  medium  can  scarcely 
be  over-estimated.  It  stands  as  an  important  element  in  Indian 
life,  and  its  history  is,  indeed,  the  story  of  the  rise  and  progress 

*  "  These  wampum  belts  as  I  have  said  took  the  place  of  contracts,  of  public  acts,  and  of  annals  or  registers.  For 
the  savages,  having  no  writing  cr  letters,  and  finding  themselves  soon  forgetting  the  transactions  that  occur  among 
them  from  time  to  time,  supply  this  deficiency  by  making  for  themselves  a  local  memory  by  means  of  words  which 
they  attach  to  these  belts,  of  which  each  one  refers  to  some  partirular  affair,  or  some  circumstance  which  it  repre 
sents  so  long  as  it  exists."  —  LAFITAU  :  Moeurs  des  Sauvages  A  meriquaines. 


MANNERS  AND  MATERIALS. 


167 


of   the  race  in  whose    duties,    occupations,    organizations    and 
ambitions  it  played  so  conspicuous  a  part. 

But  there  were  other  things,  also,  that  determined  the  char 
acter  and  quality  of  the  Indian  life:  —  arts  and  inventions, 
beyond  the  attainment  even  of  peoples  who  have  not  been 
esteemed  barbaric ;  workmanship,  of  which  even  the  skilled 
artificer  of  to-day  might  be  proud ;  productiveness,  that  betrays 
an  intelligence  never  yet  conceded  to  these  so-called  "  savages." 


DECORATED    WAMPUM    KELTS. 


Relics  and  excavations  attest  their  skill  in  the  making  of 
pottery,  beyond  that  which  even  their  pre-historic  ancestors  of 
mound  and  pueblo  attained.  The  Indian  method  of  tanning 
skins  is  still  esteemed  the  best;  the  Indian  deer-skin  shoe,  or 
moccason,  as  originally  made,  was  a  better  shoe  than  ancient 
Rome  or  mediaevel  Europe  produced  and,  so  experts  have 
declared,  "deserves  to  be  classed  among  the  highest  articles 


1 68 


MANNERS  AND  MATERIALS. 


of  apparel  ever  invented,  alike  in  usefulness,  durability  and 
beauty."  The  bark  rope,  the  beautiful,  strong  and  skilfully- 
made  burden-straps  of  porcupine-quills,  the  canoe,  bark  tray 
and  sap-tub,  the  corn-mortar,  snow-shoe  and  Da-ya-ya-da-ga~ 
nea-ta  or  fire-maker  (really  a  unique  and  ingenious  invention 

for  creating  a  fire,  in 
the  absence  of  matches, 
metals,  and  chemicals) 
all  testify  to  the  pa 
tience  and  developed 
skilfulness  of  the  In 
dian  manufacturer. 
The  basket  making 
and  ivory  turning  of 
even  the  degenerate 
races  known  to  us  to 
day,  the  delicate  and 
often  wonderfully  artistic  weaving  of  the  Navajos,  and  the  peo 
ple  of  Zufii,  the  air  gun  and  arrows  still  made  by  the  Chero- 
kees,  the  buckskin  ball  and  the  hickory  rackets  of  the  Choctaws 
and  Seminoles,  the  polished  stone  ware  and  the  rotary  drill  of 
the  Moki  and  Zuni  Indians  —  relics  of  the  lost  arts  of  their 
ancestors  —  all  attest  the  high  state  of  semi-civilized  inventive 
ness  which  the  Indians  before  the  discovery  had  attained. 
Indeed  it  is  by  a  careful  study  and  comparison  of  Indian  arts 
and  inventions  that  students  of  race-characteristics  have  been 
able  to  assert  the  common  origin  and  connected  life  of  the  red- 
men  of  America.  The  similarity  of  their  labors  and  their  pro 
ductions  is  ample  proof  that  their  life  in  all  sections  of  their 
wide  domain  was  essentially  the  same,  modified  only  by  the 
degrees  of  intelligence  to  which  they  had  severally  attained. 


INDIAN    METHOD   OF   LIGHTING    FIRE. 


MANNERS  AND   MATERIALS. 


169 


The  main  barrier  to  the  higher  intellectual  development  of 
the  American  Indian  —  even  had  not  the  white  discoverer 
come  to  so  completely  change  his  destiny  —  was  undoubtedly 
an  ethical  quite  as  well  as  an  ethnical  one. 

With  a  philosophy  based  upon  superstition  rather  than 
reason,  a  morality  that  sprung  from  the  limitations  rather  than 
the  exaltations  of  life,  and  a  system  of  law  based  on  security 


NAVAJU    BASKET    WORK. 

rather  than  justice,  the  Indian  mind  was  as  slow  to  reach  con 
clusions  as  was  its  volition  contracted.  Though  it  held  the 
same  elements  of  morality  that  form  the  basis  of  civilized  char 
acter,  their  right  development  was  retarded  because  the  stand 
ard  of  attainment  was  low. 

"  Law,"  says  Major  Powell,  "  begins  in  savagery  through  the 


170  MANNERS  AND  MATERIALS. 

endeavor  to  secure  peace,  and  develops,  in  the  highest  civiliza 
tion,  into  the  endeavor  to  establish  justice." 

A  careful  study  into  the  fundamental  principles  of  the 
Indian  idea  of  justice  and  equity  will  discover  that  this  idea 
related  solely  to  the  prevention  of  controversy  or  its  termina 
tion.  All  the  doings  and  talk  of  the  Indian  councils,  the  inter 
change  of  presents  and  the  payment  of  tribute  or  of  indemnity 
were  directed  toward  this  end,  and  many  a  phase  of  tribal  life 
seemingly  without  reason,  will  be  found  to  spring  from  this 
cause. 

As  has  been  shown  elsewhere,  the  arrows  of  each  hunter  or 
warrior  bore  upon  them  private  marks  so  that  the  game  or  the 
scalp  might  be  claimed  by  its  rightful  owner;  and  it  is  on 
record  that  a  Sioux  war-party  having  surprised  and  killed,  at 
the  first  fire,  a  squad  of  sleeping  soldiers,  left  the  bodies,  the 
arms  and  property  of  their  victims  untouched  because  it  could 
not  be  determined  by  whose  bullets  the  soldiers  had  been 
killed.  This,  according  to  the  Indian  law,  was  the  only  just 
settlement  of  a  dispute  as  to  possession  —  prove  your  property 
or  leave  it  alone. 

The  deference  shown  to  age,  that  has  also  been  elsewhere 
referred  to,  will  upon  investigation  be  found  to  have  another 
basis  than  that  of  mere  affection.  It  holds  even  where  affec 
tion  does  not  exist,  and  is  due  to  the  universal  law,  always  a 
part  of  the  Indian  economy,  that  authority  belongs  to  the  elder. 
It  was  this  law  —  a  sure  way  of  settling  controversy  —  that  gave 
rise  to  the  seemingly  curious  custom  among  the  Indians  of 
never  addressing  a  person  by  his  proper  name,  but  always  by 
his  kinship  term. 

Such  a  kinship  term  would  convey  a  relative  idea  of  the  age 
of  the  person  addressed,  and  would  itself  show  to  whom  author- 


MANNERS  AND   MATERIALS. 


171 


ity  or  possession  belonged.  "  When  we  are  young,"  said  an  old 
Wastonquah  medicine  man,  "  we  do  not  care  how  old  we  are, 
and  when  we  are  old  we  do  not  care  to  know." 

Among  the  Omahas  there  were  fourteen  of  these  "consan 
guinity  terms  "  for  male  relationship,  and  for  female  kindred 
fifteen.  The  most  remote  ancestors  were  called  grandfathers 


INDIAN    WEAPONS. 


and  grandmothers ;  the  most  remote  descendants  were  addressed 
or  spoken  of  as  grandchildren.  The  Seneca  child  called  its 
mother's  sisters  "mother"  —  either  "great"  or  "  little  "  mother, 
according  as  the  sisters  \vere  older  or  younger  than  the  real 
mother. 

So  closely  allied  to  law,  among  barbaric  peoples,  is  super 
stition  that  this  very  law  of  consanguinities  led  to  a  supersti 
tious  dread  of  speaking  or  telling  one's  own  name.  Disuse 


1 72  MANNERS  AND  MATERIALS. 

creates  distrust,  and  it  became  one  of  the  canons  of  the  Indian's 
faith  that  to  tell  or  speak  aloud  one's  own  name  gave  to  the 
enemy,  or  the  evil  spirit  that  the  Indian  always  feared  and 
sought  to  baffle,  a  power  over  the  speaker  which  would  be  used 
for  purposes  of  sorcery  or  witchcraft. 

For  this  reason  there  was  always  much  difficulty  in  learning 
an  Indian's  real  name,  and  he  would  employ  both  reticence  and 
evasion  to  conceal  it.  This  did  not  preclude  another  person 
from  telling  the  name ;  it  only  applied  to  the  Indian  in  question 
or  to  some  member  of  his  immediate  family.* 

Johann  Kohl,  the  German  traveller,  relates  a  curious  exam 
ple  of  this  absurd  superstition.  "  To  whom  does  this  gun 
belong  ?  "  he  asked  an  Indian  squaw.  "  It  belongs  to  him,"  she 
replied.  "  And  who  is  '  him '  ? "  demanded  Mr.  Kohl.  "  Why, 
the  man  who  has  his  seat  there,"  the  woman  answered,  pointing 
to  her  husband's  seat  in  the  lodge.  And  at  another  time, 
having  asked  an  Indian  his  name  the  man  remained  silent  for  a 
long  time,  and  finally,  when  the  question  had  been  repeatedly 
asked  by  Mr.  Kohl,  the  Indian  nudged  a  bystander  and  said, 
"  Tell  him  my  name." 

Thus,  in  many  and  often  unexpected  ways,  can  the  whole 
fabric  of  aboriginal  life  in  America  be  traced  to  a  logical  cause, 
resident  in  the  red-man's  peculiar  and  childlike  conceptions  of 
the  superstitions,  moralities  and  laws  that  lay  at  the  basis  of  his 
circumscribed  and  limited  powers. 

There  is,  in  the  whole  life  of  man,  no  happening  that  is  due 
to  chance.  Even  the  smallest  occurrence  or  custom  may  be 
traced  to  a  logical  and  legitimate  cause.  And  to  this  rule  the 
American  Indian  was  no  exception.  From  North  to  South, 

*  It  it  because  of  this  superstition  that  so  much  confusion  arises  in  the  identification  of  historic  Indians,  and  it 
is  because  of  this  that  the  daughter  of  the  wily  chief  of  the  Pow-ha-tans,  Ma-ta-ka,  is,  known  to  us  only  by  her 
nickname  of  "  little  wantan  "  —  J>o-ca-hun-tas  —  her  father  refusing  to  disclose  her  real  name  to  his  white  neighbors. 


MANNERS  AND  MATERIALS.  173 

from  East  to  West,  wherever  a  red-man  lived  and  labored, 
hunted,  fought  or  died,  from  birth  to  burial  his  life  was  but  that 
of  his  brothers.  Faiths,  customs  and  methods  were  at  base 
identical. 

All  Indians,  alike,  located  their  misty  and  mythical  paradise 
in  the  West  "  toward  the  sinking  sun  " ;  their  laws  of  hospitality 
were  the  same  ;  their  modes  of  war  and  worship,  their  tribal 


COUNCIL    OF   CHIEFS   AND   WARRIORS. 


relations,  their  manner  of  hunting,  their  amusements  and  their 
burial  customs  were  largely  similar. 

"  Peculiarities  of  manners  and  customs,"  says  Schoolcraft, 
"  where  they  exist  in  the  most  striking  forms,  are  found  to  be 
due  in  great  measure  to  the  diversities  of  latitude  and  longi 
tude,  changes  of  climate,  geographical  position  and  the  natural 
products  and  distinctive  zoology  of  the  country." 

And  Mr.  Lewis  H.  Morgan  in  his  careful  study  of  the  life 
and  history  of  the  Indians  sees  in  the  similarity  of  their  arts 
and  inventions  a  certain  proof  of  their  undivided  race  connec 
tion.  "  To  this  day,"  he  says, "  Indian  life  is  about  the  same 


174  MANNERS  AND  MATERIALS. 

over  the  whole  republic,  and  in  describing  the  fabrics  which 
illustrate  the  era  of  Indian  occupation,  we  should  take  in  the 
whole  range  of  Indian  life,  from  the  wild  tribes  dwelling  in  the 
seclusions  of  Oregon,  to  the  present  semi-agricultural  Iroquois 
who  reside  amongst  us.  Many  of  the  relics  disentombed  from 
the  soil  of  New  York  relate  back  to  the  period  of  the  mound- 
builders  of  the  West,  and  belong  to  a  race  of  men  and  to  an  age 
which  have  passed  beyond  the  ken  of  Indian  tradition.  Our 
first  Indian  epoch  is  thus  connected  with  that  of  the  mound- 
builders." 

And  during  all  the  era  of  Indian  occupation,  so  this  laborious 
student  assures  us,  though  there  were  diversities  of  manners 
and  customs  Indian  life  was  essentially  the  same.  "  One  sys 
tem  of  trails,"  he  says,  "  belted  the  whole  face  of  the  territory 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific ;  and  the  intercourse  between 
the  multitude  of  nations  who  dwelt  within  these  boundless 
domains  was  constant,  and  much  more  extensive  than  has  ever 
been  supposed." 

It  was  to  this  widely-scattered,  but  generically-related  race  — 
so  different  in  every  way  from  the  masses  of  Europe,  them 
selves  just  emerging  from  the  darkness  of  feudalism,  of  igno 
rance  and  of  a  system  little  else  than  barbaric  —  that  the  white 
men  from  across  the  sea  came,  seeking  for  riches  and  dominion. 
Let  us  draw  from  the  historic  records  the  story  of  this  clashing 
of  alien  customs  and  manners,  faiths  and  laws  —  the  story  of  the 
mingling  lives  of  the  red-man  and  the  white. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

THE     COMING     OF    THE     WHITE     MAN. 

AFTER  a  thousand  years  of  ab 
solute  supremacy  this,  then,  had 
the  American  Indian  become  — 
a  free  man  of  the  forest  and  the 
plains,  a  citizen  of  a  sylvan 
republic,  ranging  in  intellectual 
force  through  the  several  phases 
of  progressive  barbarism,  as  op 
portunity,  capacity  or  occupation 
placed  him. 

A  home-lover  and  a  home-liver 
after  his  kind ;  holding  peculiar 
but,  judged  from  his  standpoint, 

altogether  logical  ideas  of  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happi 
ness,  and  with  a  certain,  regulated  system  of  law  that  may 
have  been  crude  and  primitive,  but  was  yet  respected  through 
out  all  his  broad  domain ;  with  a  nature  capable  of  advance 
along  certain  restricted  lines  —  a  nature  dwarfed  and  warped 
by  superstition  and  the  forms  it  creates,  but  yet  with  the  high 
est  possibilities  of  courage,  endurance,  virtue  and  honor;  with 
a  mind  restricted  in  its  workings,  but  singularly  childlike  and 
imitative  when  brought  into  contact  with  higher  intelligencies, 

175 


176  THE    COMING    OF  THE    WHITE   MAN. 

the  Indians  of  North  America  were  struggling  toward  an  ad 
vanced  position  in  the  scale  of  civilization  which,  though  far 
below  that  attained  by  the  Caucasian  race  might,  still,  have  gone 
far  beyond  that  which  other  semi-civilizations  have  reached. 

The  logic  of  events  is  inexorable.  Nowhere  in  the  history 
of  the  world  has  a  nomadic,  a  hunting,  or  a  purely  agricultural 
race  been  allowed  to  monopolize  a  territory  which  could  be 
made  to  support  a  more  numerous,  because  more  intellectually 
productive  population. 

The  history  of  the  People,  from  pre-Adamite  times  to  those 
of  Canaan  and  the  Congo,  furnish  incontestable  proof  of  the 
inevitable  workings  of  this  law.  Through  ages,  and  aeons  per 
haps,  the  continent  of  America  had  been  preparing  for  its  ulti 
mate  possessors.  Its  veins  of  iron,  of  coal,  and  of  practical  and 
precious  metals,  its  noble  sea-harbors,  its  mighty  lakes  and 
rivers,  inviting  commerce,  its  vast  stretches  of  fertile  farm-land, 
its  inexhaustible  forests,  its  unrivalled  sites  for  the  great  cities 
which  the  accumulating  life  of  a  greater  nation  must  eventually 
occupy  —  all  these  pointed  to  a  possibility  which  must  in  time 
be  evolved  from  an  era  of  preparation. 

So  the  white  man  came.  He  came  with  his  mysterious 
ships  and  his  more  mysterious  implements  and  arms,  with  his 
prancing  horses  that,  alone,  were  to  revolutionize  the  ways  of 
Indian  life,  with  his  greed  for  gold  and  gain,  his  determination 
for  dominion,  his  arrogant  and  overbearing  nature,  his  manhood- 
destroying  drink,  his  love  of  barter  and  his  peculiar  creeds. 
The  first  ray  of  light  that  showed  to  the  watchful  Columbus 
from  the  Santa  Maria's  deck  the  low-lying  islands  of  the  South 
ern  sea  ushered  in,  for  the  American  Indian  to  whom  the  great 
admiral  thus  unwittingly  came,  not  the  sunrise,  but  the  twilight, 
of  his  race. 


THE    COMING    OF  THE    WHITE  MAN. 


177 


That  the  red-man  and  the  white  had  met  before  Columbus' 
day  there  is  little  doubt.  But  this  acquaintance  had  been  so 
limited  and  fragmentary  that  the  existence  of  a  white  race  was 
to  the  Indian  little  else  than  mythical,  mysterious  and  legendary. 
The  discoveries  of  Columbus  gave  to  the  red-man  of  the  Ameri 
can  continent  his  first  real  and  lasting  knowledge  of  the  abso- 


SO    THE   WHITE   MAN    CAME. 


lute  existence  of  the  "  white  manitous  "  of  his  lodge-fire  legends 
and  tales. 

But,  because  of  these  legends  and  tales,  he  was  all  the  more 
ready  to  put  in  practice  his  universal  law  of  hospitality,  and  to 
extend  to  the  strangers  a  ready  and  generous  welcome. 

Rumor  never  lags,  and  rumor  that  has  its  foundation  in  fact 
travels  even  swifter  than  a  groundless  fabrication.  Along  the 


178  THE   COMING    OF  THE    WHITE  MAN. 

narrow  Indian  trails  that  skirted  the  Atlantic  seaboard  and 
stretched  far  away  into  the  back  country,  or  over  the  gleaming 
water-ways  that  bore  the  frail  canoe,  there  sped  with  ever- 
increasing  force  the  startling  reports  of  the  coming  of  the 
canoes  with  wings,  the  men  with  white  faces  and  invulnerable 
bodies,  the  strange  animals- — neither  dog  nor  deer — upon 
which  the  pale-faced  chieftains  rode,  the  black-frocked  medicine 
men,  the  wooden  cross,  and  the  tubes  that  shot  out  lightning. 

Around  the  fire-pit  in  lodge  and  council  house,  as  from  tribe 
to  tribe  the  marvellous  stories  ran,  the  strange  tidings  were  told 
and  retold,  discussed  and  pondered  upon,  and  the  mysterious 
visitors  were  reckoned  as  white  manitous  sent  from  the  far- 
distant  shores  of  Che-ba-ku-nah,  the  Land  of  Souls. 

The  Algonquins  of  the  North  listened  to  and  spread  the 
story  as  it  ca.me  from  those  of  their  people  who  in  1497  had 
seen  the  ships  of  the  Cabots,  and  those  who,  in  1500,  had 
watched  from  rocky  shores  the  sails  of  Cortereal ;  the  tribes  of 
the  South  responded  with  the  reports  of  those  who  had  wel 
comed  the  caravels  of  Ojeda  and  Vespucci  in  1499,  and, 
during  the  months  of  1500  and  1502,  had  seen  through  the  live 
oaks  and  the  pines  the  vessels  of  now  unknown  Spanish  navi 
gators  who  explored  the  coast  from  Pensacola  and  the  Gulf  to 
the  mouths  of  the  Chesapeake  and  the  Hudson.  The  Indians 
of  the  sea-coast  received  as  gifts  or  in  barter  new  and  marvellous 
trinkets  and  cloths,  glittering  and  gorgeous  in  color,  such  as  had 
never  been  seen  before.  And,  as  they  showed  these  baubles 
and  stuffs  to  their  brethren  of  the  interior,  they  told  also  of  a 
magic  drink  which  the  white  manitous  had  given  them,  and 
which  first  set  them  on  fire  and  then  filled  them  with  passion 
and  mirth  and  the  desire  for  sleep. 

So,  with  extravagant  demonstrations  of  welcome,  with  pres- 


"ALONG  THE  NARROW  TRAIL  THE  STARTLING  TIDINGS  SPED. 


THE   COMING    OF  THE    WHITE  MAN.  181 

ents  of  maize  and  fish  and  fruits,  and,  often,  with  offerings  in 
sacrifice  to  propitiate  and  please  their  mysterious  visitors,  the 
Indians  of  the  North  American  coast  from  Yucatan  to  Labrador, 
gave  to  the  first  of  the  navigators  a  cordial,  hearty  and  helpful 
welcome.  There  does  not  appear  a  single  exception  to  this 
spontaneous  Indian  hospitality  in  the  whole  story  of  early 
American  discovery. 

But  this  record  of  friendship  was  soon  to  be  changed,  and  by 
the  very  men  who  should  have  perpetuated  it.  All  too  speedily 
the  trustful  and  superstitious  Indians  found  their  white  mani- 
tous  to  be  but  mortal  men,  and  very  scurvy  ones  at  that. 

The  opening  years  of  the  sixteenth  century  saw  Europe  still 
but  half-civilized.  Letters  and  learning  were  monopolized  by 
the  few,  and  the  letters  were  as  crude  as  was  the  learning 
pedantic.  The  invention  by  means  of  which  Faust  and  Guten 
berg  were  to  give  an  immeasurable  advance  to  man's  possi 
bilities,  the  freedom  of  thought  that  was  to  emancipate  him 
from  the  slavery  of  Rome,  moved  both  slowly  and  uncertainly. 
The  baleful  influence  of  feudalism,  and  the  iron  bands  of  a 
priestly  despotism  which  even  then  held  over  one  third  of  all 
the  land  in  Europe  in  thrall,  still  kept  the  men  and  women  of 
Europe  in  political  and  spiritual  bondage.  And  it  was  the 
nation  most  deeply  sunk  in  this  feudal  and  religious  despotism 
that  gave  to  the  world  the  knowledge  of  a  new  continent  and 
sent  her  ships  and  her  sailors  across  the  western  sea  to  discover, 
explore,  conquer  and  claim  for  the  king  of  Spain  all  the  new 
found  lands. 

Schooled  in  the  ruthless  tutelage  of  eight  centuries  of  war 
fare  and  of  conquest  amid  the  Moors  of  Spain,  every  Spaniard 
was  a  fighter,  and,  in  the  eyes  of  hidalgo  and  of  don,  every  infidel, 
as  Dr.  Ellis  says.  wa«  "  an  enemy  exempted  from  all  tolerance 


182  THE   COMING    OF  THE    WHITE 

f 

and  mercy.  Treachery,  defiance  of  pledges  and  treaties,  bru 
talities  and  all  wild  and  reckless  stratagems,  had  educated  the 
champions  of  the  Cross  and  faith  in  what  were  to  them  but  the 
accomplishments  of  the  soldier  and  the  fidelity  of  the  believer." 

Brutality  may  be  explained,  though  it  can  never  be  excused, 
and  this  condition  of  the  Spanish  nature  in  1500  helps  to 
explain  the  atrocities  which  befouled  the  pathway  along  which 
Spanish  discovery  passed.  Add  to  this  an  insatiable  greed  of 
gold  and  of  spoil,  an  absolute  disinclination  to  work,  more 
marked  than  that  of  the  Indian  brave  himself,  and  an  arrogance 
of  bigotry  which  saw  in  all  men  not  of  Castilian  faith  and 
blood  heretics  and  infidels,  and  in  all  whom  the  Church  held  as 
pagans  material  only  for  serfs  and  slaves,  and  the  cause  that 
led  alike  to  Spanish  dominion  and  to  Spanish  downfall  is  at 
once  disclosed. 

It  was  with  such  a  nature  as  this  that  the  Indians  of  America 
were,  first  of  all,  brought  into  contact. 

The  child-nature,  as  it  is  quick  to  welcome  and  appropriate 
the  marvellous,  is  also  quick  to  retaliate  when  what  it  has 
loyally  accepted  proves  unworthy  or  hostile.  A  child,  hurt  by 
a  new  pet  or  injured  by  a  new  toy,  angrily  punishes  or  destroys 
its  aggressor ;  a  savage,  deceived  or  abused  by  one  at  first 
accepted  as  faultless,  speedily  learns  to  distrust  and  detest. 
Familiarity  does  often  breed  contempt,  and  when  the  sadly 
mortal  nature  of  the  supposed  manitous  became  so  painfully 
apparent  to  the  disillusioned  red-man,  distrust  and  hatred  soon 
worked  their  logical  course. 

The  European  occupation  of  America  naturally  divides 
itself  into  three  epochs  :  the  days  of  the  navigators,  the  days  of 
the  conquistadores,  the  days  of  the  colonists,  and  in  each  epoch 
is  to  be  found  the  same  misunderstanding  and  disregard  of  the 


THE   COMING    OF  THE    WHITE  MAN.  183 

« 

Indian's  character  and  the  Indian's  right.  The  treachery  of 
the  navigators,  the  brutality  of  the  conquerors,  and  the  studied 
injustice  of  the  colonists  laid  the  foundation  for  the  years  of 
terror,  of  massacre  and  of  blood  that  fill  the  pages  of  early 
American  history. 

The  very  first  phase  of  European  contact  with  the  Ameri 
can  was  the  knavish  kidnapping  of  hosts  by  guests  as  "sam 
ples  "  for  exhibition  at  home  ;  the  next  was  the  cruel  system  of 
Indian  slavery  which,  instituted  by  Columbus  himself,  was  prac 
tised  by  every  nation  that  thereafter  found  a  footing  on  Ameri 
can  soil. 

In  the  days  of  the  navigators  the  slave-catcher  and  the 
explorer  travelled  in  company,  and,  basing  the  authority  for 
their  actions  upon  the  infamous  Spanish  law  that  gave  to  the 
King  as  suzerain  and  liege  a  proprietory  right  over  all  the 
lands  discovered,  and  all  the  natives  thereof,  the  Spanish 
explorers  took  possession  alike  of  lands  and  natives  in  the 
name  of  their  King  and  allotted  their  human  spoils  according 
to  the  rank  and  station  of  the  "  gentlemen  "  of  the  expedition. 
The  system  of  Indian  slavery  thus  instituted  by  Columbus  and 
his  companions  outrivalled  in  horror  and  atrocity  all  the  malig 
nities  of  the  most  fiendish  form  of  modern  African  slavery. 

Spain,  with  the  long  line  of  her  navigators,  from  Columbus 
the  admiral,  and  Velasquez,  the  slave-catcher  of  Yucatan,  to 
De  Soto,  bloody  and  brutal  in  his  greed  for  Indian  slaves,  led 
this  infamous  and  demoralizing  traffic.  But,  as  has  been  said, 
the  other  nations  who  followed  her  as  explorers  and  colonizers 
were  but  little  behind  her  in  their  treacherous  trade  in  men. 
Gasper  Cortereal  in  his  Portuguese  vessel  brought  away  from 
Labrador  a  number  of  its  natives,  "admirably  calculated  for 
labor,  and  the  best  slaves  I  have  ever  seen ; "  Verrazano  the 


184  THE    COMING    OF  THE    WHITE  MAN. 

Frenchman  foully  returned  the  hospitality  of  the  North  Caro 
lina  Indians  who  had  rescued  his  drowning  sailors,  by  kidnap 
ping  the  children  of  the  tribe ;  Hawkins  the  Englishman  in  his 
slave-ship,  bearing  the  merciful  name  of  "  Jesus,"  followed  suit, 
and  the  iniquitous  system  thus  begun  did  not  entirely  disappear 
until  the  brighter  days  of  colonial  revolution. 

The  Indians  of  America  acknowledged  neither  master  nor 
lord.  The  Iroquois  and  the  Cherokee  republics,  fit  prototypes 
of  the  greater  republic  that  was  to  follow  them,  taught  the 
lessons  of  man's  equality  and  freedom  that  were  common  to  all 
the  Indian  tribes.  Brave  and  chief  were  upon  an  equal  footing, 
and  the  red-men  could  neither  understand  nor  appreciate  the 
iniquitous  law  of  Spain  nor  the  arrogant  assumption  of  posses 
sion  which  the  white  men  claimed. 

The  logical  result  of  brutality  and  bad  faith  on  the  part  of 
the  stronger  party  must  be  hatred  and  duplicity  on  the  part 
of  the  weaker  and  persecuted  one.  No  wonder  that  the  startled , 
natives  of  the  seashore  tribes  shot  off  great  flights  of  arrows  at 
the  approaching  ships  thinking  to  kill  them  as  they  would  the- 
beasts  of  prey ;  no  wonder  that  Jacques  Cartier,  feeling  his  way 
along  the  northeastern  coasts,  where  for  years  Breton  fisher 
men  and  unscrupulous  voyagers  had  trafficked  and  cheated, 
reported  the  Indians  to  be  "  wild  and  unruly  ;  "  no  wonder  that 
the  red-man's  hatred  of  the  Spanish  conquistadores  should  be  so 
intense  that  a  captive  chief  bound  to.  the  Spanish  torture  stake, 
when  promised  eternal  bliss  of  eternal  torment  as  he  should 
accept  or  reject  the  Catholic  faith,  asked  the  pertinacious 
"  black-coat  "  if  there  were  any  Spaniards  in  heaven,  and  on 
being  assured  that  there  were  he  bade  the  priest  begone  and 
added  "  I  will  not  go  to  a  place  where  I  may  meet  with  one  of 
that  accursed  race." 


THE    COMING    OF  THE    WHITE  MAN. 


'§5 


As,  first,  along  the  narrow  trails  had  sped  the  rumor  of  the 
white  man's  landing  upon  the  shores  of  the  "  Great  Salt  Water," 
until  the  tribes  of  the  coast  had  seen  and  the  tribes  of  the 
interior  had  heard  of  this  new  factor  in  Indian  life,  so  now 
quickly  followed  the  tidings  of  disaster  and  of  death  which  the 

the    new   comers    had 

wrought,  until  those 
who  had  been  ready 
to  welcome  were  hot 
to  meet  and  repel  this 
treacherous  invader. 
The  brothers  of  the 
kidnapped  Donnacona 
in  the  North,  and  of 
the  butchered  Chero 
kee  patriots  in  the 
South,  replaced  their 
gifts  of  hospitality  with 
the  war-whoop  and 
gave  to  their  persecu 
tors  blood  for  blood. 
Step  by  step  they  dog 
ged  the  track  of  Euro 
pean  exploration  and 
the  battle  of  Mauvila 
on  the  Alabama,  "  the 
bloodiest  battle  ever  fought  on  our  soil  between  the  red-man 
and  the  white,"*  marked  the  protest  as  it  showed  the  inherent 
weakness  of  the  Indian  tribes. 

*  Fought  in  the  year  1540  between  De  Soto  and  the  Indians  of  the  Cherokee  confederacy.  The  Spanish  loss  in 
killed  and  wounded  was  175;  the  Indian,  according  to  Spanish  records,  nearly  3000.  Mauvila  was  an  Indian  town 
on  the  Alabama  river  about  thirty  miles  north  of  the  present  city  of  Mobile  —  which  derives  its  name  from  this  old 
Indian  stronghold. 


SPANISH    OCCUPATION. 


186  THE   COMING    OF  THE    WHITE   MAN. 

Still  the  conquerors  persisted,  and  fast  upon  their  heels 
came  the  colonists  —  a  mingled  and  constantly-increasing 
throng,  the  oppressed,  the  adventurous  and  the  scum  of  Europe 
seeking  homes  and  wealth  in  a  new  world  where  liberty  could 
be  turned  to  license,  and  the  force  of  a  man's  strong  arm  was 
the  only  or  the  surest  law. 

But  now  another  element,  more  potent  than  the  white 
man's  arm  and  the  red-man's  vengeance,  was  introduced  into  this 
conflict  of  races ;  an  element  more  destructive,  because  more 
insidious,  more  fatal  because  more  degrading  than  Spanish  rack 
and  chain  or  English  gun  and  sword. 

The  white  man's  fire-water  was  his  strongest  and  most 
deadly  ally  in  the  conquest  and  disintegration  of  the  native 
American  race.  The  story  of  its  introduction,  its  influence, 
and  its  triumph  is  the  saddest  record  yet  made  of  the  downfall 
and  destruction  of  a  once  noble  race  and  is,  in  itself,  the  strong 
est  plea  for  temperance  that  the  annals  of  man's  weaknesses 
can  show. 

Up  to  the  time  of  Columbus  drunkenness  was  an  unknown 
vice  among  the  American  Indians.  Their  sole  drink  was  cold 
water  save  among  certain  of  the  Southern  tribes  where  it  is 
said,  though  this  is  not  entirely  proven,  that  a  certain  decoction 
of  herbs  steeped  into  what  was  termed  "the  black  drink  "  was 
an  occasional  though  by  no  means  appetizing  beverage.  Smoke 
was  sometimes  swallowed  and  retained  in  the  lungs  until  partial 
intoxication  resulted,  but  even  this  was  considered  a  demoraliz 
ing  habit  and  was  used  more  as  an  anaesthetic  than  an  excitant. 

When  Ma-se-wa-pe-ga,  the  Ojibway,  brought  back  from  his 
visit  to  the  "  white  spirits  "  a  certain  allowance  of  the  fire-water 
received  from  them  as  a  gift,  none  of  his  tribe  dared  drink  it, 
believing  it  to  be  some  deadly  poison  that  the  white  man  used 


THE   COMING    OF  THE    WHITE   MAN.  187 

as  a  snare.  To  test  its  virtues,  however,  so  runs  the  story,  they 
resolved  to  try  its  effect  upon  a  very  old  woman  who  had  but  a 
short  time  longer  to  live,  and  whose  death  would  therefore  be  of 
small  account.  The  old  woman  drank-  of  the  proffered  "poi 
son  "  but,  instead  of  dying,  she  appeared  perfectly  happy  ;  recov 
ering  from  the  first  effects,  she  begged  for  more.  Thereupon  the 
braves  themselves  dared  to  taste  and  speedily  drank  up  what 
remained.  From  that  time,  says  the  narrative,  "  fire-water 
became  the  mammon  of  the  Ojibways,  and  a  journey  of  hun 
dreds  of  miles  to  procure  a  taste  of  it,  was  considered  but  as 
boy's  play." 

And  as  with  the  Ojibways  of  the  West,  so  with  the  tribes  of 
the  East,  the  South,  and  the  far  Pacific  coast.  The  advent  of 
the  white  man's  "  fire-drink  "  marked  the  first  downward  step 
for  the  red  race  of  America,  whose  desire  like  that  of  the  child- 
nature  everywhere,  knew  no  limit  to  appetite  but  gratification. 

"  Take  these  Indians  in  their  own  trim  and  natural  disposi 
tion,"  wrote  Master  William  Wood  in  his  "  New  England's 
Prospect,"  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  "  and  they  be 
reported  to  be  wise,  lofty-spirited,  constant  in  friendship  to  one 
another,  true  in  their  promises  and  more  industrious  than  many 
others."  And  so  they  remained,  he  continues,  "  until  some  of 
our  English,  to  unclothe  them  of  their  beaver  coats,  clad  them 
with  the  infection  of  swearing  and  drinking  which  was  never  in 
fashion  with  them  before,  it  being  contrary  to  their  nature  to 
guzzle  down  strong  drink,  until  our  bestial  example  and  dishon 
est  incitation  hath  brought  them  to  it,  and,  from  overflowing 
cups  there  hath  been  a  proceeding  to  revenge,  murder,  and 
overflowing  of  blood." 

"  The  crowning  curse,  the  source  of  nearly  all  other  evils 
that  beset  the  Indians,  and  nearly  all  that  embarrassed  our 


iSS  THE    COMING    OF  THE    WHITE   MAN. 

early  relations  arid  intercourse  with  their  race,"  says  Mr.  Tur 
ner  in  his  history  of  Indian  treaties,  "  was  the  use  of  spirituous 
liquors.  In  the  absence  of  them  the  advent  of  our  race  to  this 
continent  would  have  been  a  blessing  to  the  red-man  instead  of 
what  it  has  proved  —  the  cause  of  their  ruin  and  gradual  exter 
mination.  .  .  .  The  introduction  of  '  fire-water,'  vitiating 
their  appetites,  cost  them  their  native  independence  of  char 
acter;  made  them  dependants  upon  the  trader  and  the  agents 
of  rival  governments  ;  mixed  them  up  with  factions  and  con 
tending  aspirants  to  dominion ;  and  from  time  to  time,  impelled 
them  to  the  fields  of  blood  and  slaughter,  or  to  the  stealthy 
assault  with  the  tomahawk  and  scalping-knife.  For  the  ruin  of 
his  race  the  red-man  has  a  fearful  account  against  the  white." 

Any  one  who  reads  the  Indian  story  in  the  light  of  accumu 
lating  facts  cannot  but  be  impressed  with  the  real  cause  of  the 
Indian's  decline  and  fall.  As  we  see  how  the  cursed  love  of 
drink  can  change  and  vitiate  the  nature  of  men  born  to  be 
peers  of  the  greatest  minds  of  earth,  we  can  readily  understand 
how  a  less  intelligent  nature,  scarcely  midway  on  the  road  to 
civilization,  could  be  affected  and  turned  back  by  this  same 
degrading  agent. 

"  If  the  discernment  of  the  savage  is  little,"  says  Major 
Powell,  "  his  discrimination  is  less  ;  "  and  where  appetite  sways 
desire,  neither  discernment  nor  discrimination  can  exist. 

The  trader  with  his  keg  of  rum  could  accomplish  more  than 
with  all  his  barter-stock  of  duffel  cloth  and  beads.  Wherever 
the  Indian  trails  led  to  trapper's  hut  or  trader's  post  the  infat 
uated  red-man,  inflamed  by  the  one  taste  of  the  white  man's 
fire-water  that  created  the  thirst  for  more,  bore  his  load  of  pel 
tries,  careless  of  their  cost  and  reckless  of  their  selling  price 
if  only  rum  was  the  return. 


THE   COMING    OF  THE    WHITE  MAN.  189 

Appetite  is  the  grave  of  reason,  as  it  is  of  manliness,  honor, 
decency  and  truth.  Priest  and  missionary  might  implore  and 
threaten,  colonial  authority  might  legislate  and  restrict,  chiefs 
and  councils  might  protest  and  plead,  but  the  curse  of  rum 
once  fastened  upon  an  heretofore  abstemious  race  was  more 
powerful  than  priest  or  governor,  chief  or  council. 

"  With  his  keg  of  rum,"  says  Mr.  Turner,  "  the  Englishman 
could  succeed,  and  with  a  morbid  and  sordid  perseverance  he 
plied  it  in  trade  as  well  as  in  diplomacy.  It  was  rum  that  first 
enabled  the  Englishman  to  get  a  foothold  upon  the  Hudson, 
upon  the  Mohawk,  along  the  shores  of  Lake  Ontario  ;  and,  in 
the  absence  of  its  use,  bold  as  the  assertion  may  appear,  he 
would  not  have  succeeded  in  putting  an  end  to  French  domin 
ion  in  America." 

As  we  look  at  the  red  race  to-day  —  a  problem  and  a  puzzle 
alike  to  statesman  and  philanthropist  —  we  need  to  remember 
that,  debased,  uncouth,  bloody-minded,  treacherous  and  bestial 
as  he  may  appear,  the  very  degradations  that  render  him  an 
unsavory  quantity  in  the  eyes  of  culture  and  refinement  are  due 
to  the  ancestors  possibly  of  the  very  persons  who  now  regard 
him  with  loathing  and  contempt. 

Before  the  white  man  came  theft  and  dissimulation,  cow 
ardice  and  drunkenness  were  unknown  among  the  Indian 
tribes.  "  No  people,"  says  Mr.  Morgan  (referring  to  the  earlier 
Iroquois),  "ever  possessed  a  higher  sense  of  honor- and  self- 
respect  in  regard  to  theft  or  looked  down  upon  it  with  greater 
disdain.  .  .  .  Their  language  does  not  admit  of  double 
speaking,  or  of  the  perversion  of  the  words  of  the  speaker. 
Dissimulation  was  not  an  Indian  habit,  and  before  the  coming 
of  the  whites  the  Indian  at  large  had  not  a  mercenary  thought." 

"  From  the  hour,"  says  Mr.  Turner,  "  that   Henry  Hudson 


1 90  THE   COMING    OF  THE    WHITE  MAN. 

first  lured  the  Indians  on  board  his  vessel,  on  the  river  that 
bears  his  name,  and  gave  them  their  first  taste  of  spiritous  liq 
uors,  the  whole  history  of  British  intercourse  with  the  Indians 
is  marked  by  the  use  of  this  accursed  agent  as  a  principal 
means  of  success." 

But  the  use  of  this  "  accursed  agent,"  however,  stretches 
still  further  back.  It  came  in  with  Spanish  cruelty  and  Portu 
guese  greed,  with  French  diplomacy  and  English  avarice,  and 
from  the  days  of  the  explorers  until  now  it  has  been  the  chief 
abettor  of  the  Indian's  vices  and  the  chief  cause  of  the  Indian's 
woes. 

As,  therefore,  we  read  the  story  of  the  growing  contact 
between  the  red  race  and  the  white  we  must  never  forget  that 
beneath  all  the  accumulating  causes  for  friction,  distrust  and 
even  for  open  rupture  and  war  there  ever  lurked  this  baleful  and 
insidious  foe  of  all  that  is  manly  in  man  or  womanly  in  woman. 
It  was  this  demon  of  appetite,  this  devil  of  drink,  that  as  Cassio 
declared  could  make  a  sensible  man  "  by  and  by  a  fool  and 
presently  a  beast."  A  resistless  destroyer  where  reason  and 
intelligence  hold  sway  it  was  more  to  be  feared  and  exorcised 
by  the  poor  savage  than  manitou,  oki  or  jebi  or  all  the  countless 
spirits  of  evil  and  of  woe  that  his  childish  superstition  could 
conjure  or  his  unreasoning  fear  could  dread. 


CHAPTER    X. 


COLONIAL    INJUSTICE. 

"THE  red  men  know  nothing  of  trouble," 
said  Sa-go-ye-wat-ha  the  Seneca,  commonly 
called  Red  Jacket,  in  one  of  those  mas 
terly  speeches  that  showed  him  to  be  at 
once  an  orator  and  a  philosopher,  "  until 
it  came  from  the  white  men.  As  soon  as 
they  crossed  the  great  waters  they  wanted 
our  country,  and  in  return  have ''always 
been  ready  to  teach  us  how  to  quarrel 
about  their  religion.  The  things  they  tell 
us  we  do  not  understand,  and  the  light 

they  give  us  makes  the   straight  and  plain  path  trod   by  our 
fathers  dark  and  dreary." 

This  pathetic  statement  of  an  undisputed  fact  furnishes  the 
key  to  the  strained  relations  that  for  full  four  centuries  have 
existed  between  the  red-man  and  the  white. 

Civilization  seems  invariably  to  have  taken  hold  of  bar 
barism  by  the  "  hot  end,"  and  the  danger  of  playing  with  fire 
has  been  proven  again  and  again.  Rum  and  religion  are  both 
forced  down  the  wide  open  mouths  of  the  wondering  savage 
and,  appetite  being  always  stronger  than  reason,  the  bad  that 

civilization  gives  takes  precedence  over  the  good. 

191 


I92 


COLONIAL   INJUSTICE. 


This,  at  least,  was  the  case  so  far  as  the  native  races  of 
America  were  concerned,  and  a  study  of  Christian  discovery 
and  proselytism  will  show  a  similar  experience  in  other  new 
found  lands. 

Appetite  inflamed,  natural  characteristics  combated,  and 
superstition  illogically  attacked  are  certain  to  result  in  friction, 


THE    DEATH    OF    HIS   COMRADE. 


dispute  and  conflict.  It  was  not  alone  what  Dr.  Eggleston 
denominates  "  the  wide  difference  between  the  moral  standards 
and  social  customs  of  the  white  race  and  the  red  "  that  proved 
the  chief  obstacle  to  the  civilization  of  the  Indian ;  it  was  the 
too  frequent  absence  of  these  standards  and  customs  on  the 
part  of  the  European  that  was  at  fault.  A  thoughtless  method 


COLONIAL   INJUSTICE.  193, 

of  approach,  an  unwise  system  of  communication,  and  a  studied 
injustice  or  brutality  in  treatment  first  unsettled  and  then 
aroused  the  diverse  nature  of  the  unsophisticated  Indian. 

Received  as  gods  the  white  men  proved  to  be  devils;  wel 
comed  with  overflowing  hospitality  they  repaid  it  with  deceit 
and  theft ;  freely  offered  homes  and  harborage  they  surrounded 
them  with  frowning  forts  and  instruments  of  murder ;  and, 
recompensing  simple  faith  with  social  vices,  they  gave  in  barter 
for  the  fertile  fields  and  free  air  of  their  Indian  hosts  the 
plague  pests  of  their  race  —  debauchery  and  disease,  the  white 
man's  foulest  evils  —  rum  and  the  small-pox. 

In  the  year  1494  Columbus  cruising  among  the  islands  of 
the  West  India  group  sent  home  to  Spain  twelve  ships  laden 
with  captive  Indians  as  slaves. 

.  In  1494  young  Sebastian  Cabot,  with  two  shiploads  of 
English  convicts,  skirted  the  North  American  coast  from  New 
foundland  south  to  New  York  harbor  and  Cape  Hatteras.  He 
came  for  purposes  of  colonization  and  the  first  gift  of  the  old 
world  to  the  new  was  this  questionable  contingent  of  English 
jail-birds,  pardoned  by  the  king  to  proselyte  and  people  the 
Western  wilderness.  The  expedition  proved  a  failure  and, 
lacking  in  both  sailors  and  provisions,  it  turned  foward  Eng 
land  carrying  nothing  homeward  but  the  memory  of  hardships 
and  a  number  of  kidnapped  Indians,  stolen  for  slaves. 

In  1500  Caspar  Cortereal,  sailing  along  seven  hundred  miles 
of  the  northeasterly  American  coast  found  the  people  "well 
made,  intelligent  and  modest,"  living  in  wooden  houses  and 
"  admirably  calculated  for  labor."  He  kidnapped  fifty-seven  of 
these  hospitable  natives  for  slaves,  and  the  name  of  that  north 
erly  coast  is  to-day  a  lasting  monument  of  the  white  man's 
treachery  —  Terra  de  Labrador,  the  "  land  of  laborers." 


194 


COLONIAL   INJUSTICE. 


And  thus,  on  almost  every  year  succeeding  the  days  of 
these  first  navigators,  was  their  pernicious  example  followed. 
The  European  adventurers,  mostly  in  the  clumsy  caravels  of 
Spain,  sought  with  never-flagging  zeal  the  coasts  of  the 
Southern  United  States,  of  Mexico,  Central  America  and  the 

islands  of  the  Spanish 
Main  impelled  by  two 
desires  —  the  discovery 
of  gold  and  the  cap 
ture  of  Indians  for 
slaves. 

Wherever  along 
those  tropic  shores  an 
Indian  tribe  was  found 
or  an  Indian  lodge 
looked  out  toward  the 
sea  came  with  blood 
hound  and  with  lash,  with  harquebuse  and  spear  the  pitiless 
man-hunters,  while  above  their  heads  floated  what  Mr.  Park- 
man  has  well  called  "  the  portentous  banner  of  Spain." 

It  was,  at  least,  but  stern  and  merited  justice  that  fate 
visited  upon  these  earlier  explorers  in  a  land  wherein  they 
hoped  to  find  the  spoils  of  a  second  Mexico  or  of  a  richer 
Peru.  Ponce  de  Leon,  seeking  in  a  land  of  flowers  boundless 
riches  and  the  fountain  of  perpetual  youth,  found  only  the  seeds 
of  death  from  the  poisoned  arrow  of  a  hunted  Indian  fighting 
for  his  home-land.  Velasquez,  de  Cordova,  Miruelo,  Garay, 
de  Ayllon,  de  Quexos  and  Estavan  Gomez  discovered  little  but 
disappointment,  loss  and  death  along  the  then  unknown  shores 
from  the  Carolinas  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi.  Narvaez,  vio 
lator  of  Indian  graves,  ended  in  famine  and  shipwreck  on  the 


THE    PITILESS    MAN- HUNTER. 


COLONIAL   INJUSTICE, 


Texan  coast,  and  Cabeca  de  Vaca,  the  questionable  hero  of 
adventures  more  romantic  than  any  ever  imagined  by  DeFoe  or 
told  by  Stevenson,  wandered  for  six  weary  years,  an  outcast 
and  a  tramp,  through  unknown  Indian  tribes — the  first  white 
man  to  cross  the  continent,  befriended  and  pitied  by  the  very 
"  savages "  he  had 
hoped  to  capture  and 
enslave. 

And  Hernandode 
Soto — "noble  knight 
and  true  Christian'' 
—  the  foremost  fig 
ure  in  the  story  of 
the  Gulf  region  — 
what  of  him  ?  The 
very  crown  and  re 
finement  of  Spanish 
cruelty,  an  ardent  ad 
mirer  of  "  this  sport 
of  killing  Indians," 
De  Soto  repaid  wel 
come  with  treachery 
and  marked  his  whole 
disastrous  march 
from  the  Everglades 
of  Florida  to  the 
banks  of  the  Missis 
sippi  with  the  blood  of  tortured  Indians  and  the  smoke  of 
burning  villages.  Not  the  name  of  this  much  vaunted  Ade- 
lantado  —  bankrupt,  butcher  and  tyrant  —  should  be  held  high 
for  the  esteem  and  pattern  of  American  youth,  but  those 


THE   BURIAL   OF   DE   SOTO. 


, 


196  COLONIAL   INJUSTICE. 

rather  of  the  native  American  patriots  who  dared  withstand  the 
white  man's  arrow-proof  arms  and  to  valiantly  fight  to  the  death 
for  their  homes  —  Hirihigua  the  Seminole,  Capafi  the  Creek, 
Tuscaloosa,  chief  of  the  Chickasaws,  and  the  betrayed  young 
chieftainess  of  Cofitachiqui. 

For  generations  the  youth  of  America  have  been  trained  to 
venerate  the  sturdy  and  uncompromising  manliness  of  their 
ancestors.  It  has  been  a  cardinal  point  in  all  historical  teach 
ing  to  exalt  the  white  man  and  abase  the  Indian. 

To  come  of  a  line  of  "  Indian  fighters  "  has  been  esteemed 
an  honor  that  far  outshone  the  heroic  ancestry  of  bygone 
times;  and,  as  presidents  have  been  made  of  Indian  conquerors, 
and  statesmen  of  frontier  lawyers  and  pioneers,  so  has  the 
Indian  invariably  been  depicted  as  an  ignorant,  cunning  and 
ferocious  savage  whose  conquest  was  a  patriotic  duty  and  whose 
extermination  was  a  divine  necessity. 

No  doubt  there  may  have  been  wisdom  even  if  there  appears 
but  scant  justice  in  this  line  of  teaching.  Here,  again,  opinion  is 
largely  determined  by  the  point  of  view  from  which  the  past 
history  of  America  is  to  be  regarded.  The  aggressive  manhood 
by  means  of  which  the  vast  area  of  the  North  American  con 
tinent  has  been  reclaimed  from  unproductiveness  and  made  the 
home  of  millions  where,  before,  it  could  barely  sustain  thousands, 
is  in  strict  accord  with  the  plan  of  eternal  progression  which 
has  marked  the  history  of  the  whole  human  race. 

But,  in  the  interests  of  truth,  of  justice  and  of  humanity  it  is 
only  right  that  some  credit  should  be  given  to  the  conquered 
minority.  While  we  revere  the  ancestors  to  whose  indomitable 
fortitude,  courage  and  perseverance  America's  present  preemi 
nence  is  due,  we  should,  with  equal  candor,  be  ready  to  acknowl 
edge  their  faults  and  their  short-comings  and  allow  to  the  race 


COLONIAL   INJUSTICE. 


197 


that  gave  them  place,  such  measure  of  patriotism  and  of  valor 
as  the  truly  brave  man  is  always  ready  to  concede  to  his  foe- 
man  and  his  rival. 

"  Truly,"  said  Mendoza  the  viceroy,  when  he  heard  of  the 
achievements  of  Quigualtanqui,  chief  of  the  Chickasaws,  and 
how  he  had  driven  the 
Spanish  invaders  from 
the  bayous  of  Louis 
iana  and  the  shores  of 
the  great  river  into 

o 

which  had  been  hur 
riedly  flung  the  bones 
of  the  defeated  De 
Soto,  "  truly,  here  was 
a  noble  barbarian,  an 
honest  man,  a  true 
patriot ! " 

In  one  of  the  piti 
less  massacres  by 
which  the  patriotic 
Pequot  Indians  were 
reduced  to  submission 
by  our  "heroic  ances 
tors  "  a  certain  por 
tion  of  them  in  a  lofty 
contempt  of  death 
were,  says  the  old  record,  "  killed  in  the  swamp  like  sullen 
dogs  who  would  rather,  in  their  self-willedness  and  madness,  sit 
still  and  be  shot  through  or  cut  to  pieces,  than  to  beg  for 
mercy."  A  writer  of  seventy  years  ago,  commenting  on  this 
scrap  of  history,  says:  "when  the  Goths  laid  waste  the  city  of 


KILLED    IN    THK    SWAMP 


i9S  COLONIAL   INJUSTICE. 

Rome,  they  found  the  nobles  clothed  in  their  robes  and  seated 
with  stern  tranquility  in  their  curule  chairs;  in  this  manner 
they  suffered  death  without  an  attempt  at  supplication  or  resist 
ance.  Such  conduct  in  them  was  applauded  as  noble  and 
magnanimous ;  in  the  hapless  Indian  it  was  reviled  as  obstinate 
and  sullen." 

Let  us,  therefore,  in  the  light  of  history  as  written  by  the 
conquerors  of  the  Indians  themselves,  or  by  the  eulogists  of 
those  conquerors,  regard  the  conquest  and  colonization  of 
North  America  from  the  Indian's  side  of  the  question  and  see 
to  whose  charge  might  justly  be  laid  the  conflicts  and  the 
troubles  that  accompanied  colonization. 

"  It  is  from  the  old  times  of  which  I  am  speaking  to  thee," 
an  old  Ojibway  woman  explained  to  Johann  Kohl,  the  German 
traveller  and  explorer,  "the  very,  very  old,  when  there  were  no 
white  men  at  all  in  the  country.  Then  the  Indians  were  much 
better  than  at  this  hour.  They  were  healthier  and  stronger. 
They  lived  long  and  became  very  old.  They  could  all  fast 
much  longer.  Hence  they  had  better  dreams.*  They  dreamed 
of  none  but  good  and  excellent  things,  of  hero  deeds  and  the 
chase,  of  bears  and  stags  and  caribous,  and  other  great  and 
grand  hunting  animals ;  and  when  he  dreamed  the  Indian 
knew  exactly  where  those  animals  could  be  found.  He  made 
no  mistake.  .  .  .  But  now,"  she  added  sadly,  "their  strength 
is  broken  and  they  have  lost  their  memory.  Their  tribes  have 
melted  away,  their  chiefs  have  no  voice  in  the  council.  Their 
wise  men  and  priests  have  no  longer  good  dreams,  and  the  old 
squaws  forget  their  good  stories  and  fables." 

It  was  into  the  life  of  these  "  old  times,"  these  "  very,  very 
old  "  that  the  white  man  abruptly  came. 

*  "  Dreams  "  when  used  by  the  Indian  always  meant  thoughts,  determinations,  or  plans  of  life. 


COLONIAL   INJUSTICE.  199 

The  Indian,  as  we  have  seen,  met  "him  with  a  kindly  wel 
come,  an  open  hospitality,  and  an  eager  readiness  for  barter. 
It  was  only  when  despoiled,  deceived,  hunted,  kidnapped  and 
maltreated  that  the  hospitable  welcomer  became  the  wary  foe. 
And  though  this  change  came  gradually  it  came  all  too  soon. 
It  came  even  before  the  days  of  the  colonists,  for  navigator  and 
conqueror  alike  had  proved  deceivers. 

Civilization  always  distrusts  savagery.  The  European  col 
onists  were,  for  the  most  part,  sufferers  from  the  savageries  of 
civilization  —  the  tyrannies  of  king  and  creed.  But  despite 
their  bitter  experiences  —  perhaps  because  of  them — they 
came  to  the  American  shores  with  a  distrust  of  the  natives, 
whom  they  expected  to 
meet  only  as  foemen, 
as  absolute  as  was  their 
determination  to  con 
vert  and  conquer  them. 
And  conversion  though 
foremost  in  announce 
ment  was  always  last  in 

REDMAN  AND    WHITE. 

fact.    Columbus  is  even 

said  to  have  excused  his  treacherous  kidnapping  of  the  island 
ers  of  the  Caribees  by  the  statement  that  they  were  to  be  taught 
Spanish  and  then  sent  back  to  their  brethren  as  "  interpreters  " 
to  assist  in  the  work  of  conversion. 

To  the  French  Jesuits  in  Canada  and  the  Spanish  "  padres  " 
in  Southern  California  full  praise  should  be  accorded  for  good 
intention  and  patient  zeal.  The  effects  of  their  earnest  though 
wrongly  grounded  teaching  lived  long  after  the  bones  of  these 
devoted  teachers  had  mingled  with  the  inhospitable  soil  of  the 
land  they  had  hoped  to  save.  But  even  their  efforts  were 


200 


COLONIAL   INJUSTICE. 


calculated  to  arouse  hostility  among  the  race  they  had  come 
to  help. 

The  Indian  superstitions  were  too  firmly  rooted  to  yield  at 
once    to    other   and    antagonistic    superstitions.     Crucifix    and 

beads,  censer  and  candle,  mass 
and  mysteries  were  to  the  In 
dian  but  the  white  man's  "  med 
icine,"  and  were  only  better 
than  his  own  as  they  possessed 
more  of  glitter  and  barbaric  at 
tractiveness.  "  His  pictures  of 
infernal  fires  and  torturing  dev- 
ils,"  says  Mr.  Parkman,  "were 
readily  comprehended,  but  with 
respect  to  the  advantages  of  the 
French  paradise  he  was  slow 
to  conviction." 

S  The  Jesuit  conversion  and  absorption  of  the  American 
Indians  failed  because  of  the  arrow  of  the  Iroquois  and  the 
rum  of  England.  But  the  duplicity  and  greed  of  the  Canadian 
fur-trader  and  voyageur  accomplished  what  the  zea*  of  the 
priest  could  not  compass,  and  Algonquin  and  Athabascan 
became  little  less  than  spiritless  serfs  of  these  arrogant  lords 
of  trade. 

And  yet  such  was  the  "  fascination  and  flexibility  "  of  the 
French  character  that  this  conquest  was  a  comparatively  blood 
less  one.  The  French  seemed  to  read  the  Indian  nature  better 
than  any  other  of  the  new-comers  and  they  sought  to  identify  , 
themselves  with  the  personal  interests  of  the  Indian  whereas 
the  English  had  only  contempt  for  the  red  men.  The  English 
colonists  looked  upon  the  natives,  so  says  Mr.  Coolidge,  "  with 


"CIVILIZATION  DISTRUSTS  SAVAGERY." 


COLONIAL  INJUSTICE. 


201 


detestation  and  horror,  taking  every  opportunity  for  their  exter 
mination,  and  using  every  means  to  annoy  and  exasperate 
them." 

As  merciless  as  the  Spaniard  in  the  South,  as  bigoted  as 
the  Jesuit  in  the  North,  the  Puritan  element  that  was  the 
dominant  one  in  the  colonization  of  the  New  England  "  Planta- 


"  DOOMED    AND   UNCOVENANTED    HEATHEN." 

tions "  was  equally  regardless  of  the   Indian's  rights  and  care 
less  of  the  Indian's  wrongs. 

The  'Puritan  saw  in  the  red-man  only  a  "doomed  and 
uncovenanted  heathen,"  a  non-productive  pagan  whom,  by  the 
Lord's  will,  it  was  his  duty  to  dispossess  of  his  unrighteous 
inheritance  that  the  sons  of  God  might  occupy  and  develop 


202  COLONIAL   INJUSTICE. 

it.  As  Dr.  Ellis  says,  "the  enemies  of  the  Puritans  were  the 
enemies  of  God."- 

In  justice  however  to  the  Puritans  it  must  be  admitted  that 
even  before  their  day  the  Indians  of  New  England  had  felt  the 
white  man's  tyranny  and  had  learned  to  distrust  and  hate  him. 
Weymouth  and  Harlow,  Smith  and  Hunt  and  others  among 
the  explorers,  kidnapped  and  enslaved  the  natives ;  such  ques« 
tionable  colonists  as  Popham's  men  on  the  Maine  coast,  who  in 
1608  hunted  the  Indians  with  dogs  and  practised  upon  them 
"  many  impositions  in  barter  and  bargains "  were  but  poor 
samples  of  the  white  man's  civilization,  though  they  found 
their  imitators  in  Wollaston's  unprofitable  colony  at  Mount 
Wollaston,  or  Quincy,  in  1625,  and  in  the  suggestions  of  the 
Rev.  Samuel  Stoddard,  of  Northampton,  who  as  late  as  1703 
advised  the  hunting  of  Indians  with  dogs  because,  said  this 
pious  reasoner,  "  they  are  to  be  looked  upon  as  thieves  and 
murderers;  they  doe  acts  of  hostility  without  proclaiming  war; 
the*y  don't  appear  openly  in  ye  field  to  bid  us  battle  ;  they  use 
those  cruelly  that  fall  into  their  hands ;  they  act  like  wolves 
and  are  to  be  dealt  with  as  wolves." 

The  men  who  colonized  Maine  were,  according  to  their  own 
historian,  "  encroaching  aggressors  ;  "  the  merchant  adventurers 
who  first  settled  New  Hampshire  were  "  the  terror  of  the 
Indians."  The  stern  and  merciless  injustice  of  Endicott  — 
the  culmination  of  countless  acts  of  tyranny,  treachery  and 
aggression  on  the  part  of  the  Plymouth  and  Connecticut  col 
onies —  precipitated  the  Pequot  War  and  decided  the  position 
of  a  naturally  warlike  people  toward  their  persecutors.  The 
patriotism  of  Metacomet  of  Mount  Hope,  known  to  the  English 
as  "  King  Philip,"  fired  to  resistance  by  the  continued  encroach 
ments  of  the  men  whom  his  father  Massasoit  had  befriended, 


'.. 


x**Xlc 

,-      ,^'vj   '< 


^.^"St^ 

AN    EPISODE   OF  THE   FRENCH   AND    INDIAN    WAR — RESCUE   OF    ISRAEL 'PUTNAM. 


COLONIAL   INJUSTICE.  205 

found  a  response  among  the  Eastern  Indians  smarting  under 
"  repeated  injuries  at  the  hands  of  the  English,"  but  it  was  only 
after  long-continued  negotiation  and  council  and  the  feeling 
among  the  Indians  that  there  was  no  relief  possible  by  other 
than  warlike  methods  that  the  frenzy  of  what  was  known  as 
"  King  Philip's  war  "  burst  upon  the  New  England  colonists. 
The  "  French  and  Indian  wars  "  of  the  colonies  that,  dating 
from  the  closing  years  of  the  seventeenth  century,  culminated 
in  the  bloody  hostilities  of  1754-58  were  directly  traceable  to 
the  aggressions  of  the  colonists.  They  were,  indeed,  doubly  the 
work  of  the  white  men,  in  that  their  cause  is  to  be  found  in  the 
steady  usurpation  of  the  land  by  the  English  and  in  the  deter 
mination  of  the  French  to  check  the  advance  of  their  rivals  by 
combining  with  the  Indians  against  them. 

It  may  also  be  added  that  the  numerous  Indian  massacres 
that  marked  the  years  of  the  colonial  period  were  caused  not 
by  Indian  barbarity,  but  by  so-called  "Christian1'  policy — the 
plain  result  of  the  malign  influence  of  either  France  or  Eng 
land.  "  Neither  nation,"  says  a  recent  student  of  this  phase  of 
American  history,*  "  was  high-minded  enough  to  scorn  availing 
herself  of  savage  allies  to  do  bloody  work  which  she  would  not 
have  dared  to  risk  national  reputation  by  doing  herself.  This 
fact  is  too  much  overlooked  in  the  habitual  estimates  of  the 
barbarous  ferocity  of  the  Indian  character  as  shown  by  those 
early  massacres." 

In  the  Middle-State  colonization  the  same  general  fact  is 
apparent.  The  Indian  was  never  the  aggressor,  until  forced, 
by  repeated  bad  faith,  to  the  only  remedy  known  to  him  — 
armed  retaliation.  The  story  of  the  brutal  massacre  of  the 
Indians  at  Pavonia  by  order  of  the  cowardly  and  obstinate 

*  Mrs.  Jackson  (  "  H.  H."  )  in  "  A  Century  of  Dishonor." 


206 


COLONIAL   INJUSTICE. 


Dutch  governor,  Van  Twiller,  is  proof  of  this.  The  Esopus 
war  of  1663  was  altogether  due  to  the  brutality  of  the  colonists 
and  the  frenzy  caused  by  the  distribution  of  unlimited  rum. 
"  The  Indians/'  says  the  editor  of  the  Holland  Documents, 

"were  soon  made  to 
feel  the  presence  of 
the  whites."  Their 
corn-hills  were  tram 
pled  by  Dutch  cattle, 
they  were  taxed  by 
the  Dutch  authori 
ties  for  the  expense 
incurred  in  the  erec 
tion  of  forts  under 
the  pretence  that  by 
these  ramparts  the 
Indians  were  de 
fended  from  their 
enemies,  and  a  refusal 
to  be  taxed  was  threatened  with  punishment.  X"  This  combi 
nation  of  unfavorable  circumstances,"  says  the  Documents, 
"  required  but  a  slight  addition  to-  convert  into  estrangement 
whatever  good  understanding  or  friendship  hitherto  existed 
between  the  natives  and  the  new  comers,  and  this  provocation 
was  not  long  wanting." 

The  Virginia  massacre  of  1622  was  the  direct  result  of  the 
cruelty  and  rapacity  of  her  colonists.  Treachery  and  dissimu 
lation  throughout  marked  the  dealings  with  the  Indians,  and 
the  Indian  "wars"  of  the  Carolinas,  Georgia  and  Florida  were 
entirely  brought  about  by  the  jealousies,  quarrels  and  incessant 
disturbances  between  the  English  and  Spanish  colonists.  A 


"JUSTICE   OR   WAR — WHICH?" 


COLONIAL   INJUSTICE. 


207 


page  from  the  history  of  South  Carolina's  early  days  affords  a 
fair  sample  of  the  Indian  policy  of  our  stalwart  forefathers 
throughout  all  the  colonies. 

When  first  settled  by  the  English  South  Carolina  was  inhab 
ited  by  some  twenty  Indian  tribes.  They  had  already  tasted  the 
treachery  of  the  early  Spanish  explorers  and  had  no  great 
desire  for  the  presence  or  the  homes  of  the  white  man.  To 
save  themselves  from  Indian  attack  therefore,  according  to 
Ramsey,  one  of  the  State's  historians,  "  the  Carolinians  soon 
found  out  the  policy  of  setting  one  tribe  of  Indians  against 
another.  By  trifling  presents  they  purchased  the  friendship  of 
some  tribes,  whom  they  employed  to  carry  on  war  with  others. 
This  not  only  diverted  the  attention  of  the  natives  from  the 
white  settlers,  but  encouraged  them  to  bring  their  captives  to 
Charleston  for  the  purpose  of  transportation  to  the  West  Indies." 

The  Spaniards  in 
Florida  mangled  the 
living  bodies  of  their 
dusky  captives;  the 
French  in  Canada 
used  the  torture-stake 
for  the  punishment  of 
their  Indian  foes.  The 
Puritans  of  Massachu 
setts  "  exulted  "  over 
the  grief  of  Philip  at 
the  loss  of  his  wife  and 
child,  whom  they  had 
sold  into  West  Indian  slavery.  The  cavaliers  of  Virginia  and 
of  the  Carolinas  added  to  frequent  treacheries,  slavery  and 
torture.  Dutchman  and  Swede  alike  plied  their  Indian  allies 


HO,  WALDRON!    DOES  YOUR  HAND  WEIGH  A 
POUND  NOW?" 


2o8  COLONIAL  INJUSTICE. 

with  rum  and  then  cheated  them  in  trade,  and  it  was  not  so 
much  the  benevolence  as  the  shrewdness  of  William  Penn 
that  made  friendship  a  business  investment  and  quietly  ob 
tained  the  better  of  the  Indians  when  he  appeared  to  be 
favoring  them. 

Duplicity  in  trade  and  treachery  in  diplomacy  worked 
their  logical  results,  and  it  was  but  a  stern  commentary  on 
the  white  man's  ways  when  certain  Maine  Indians,  capturing 
Major  Waldron  during  one  of  their  numerous  outbreaks, 
grimly  satirized  the  trader's  method  of  using  a  hand's  weight 
in  the  scales  as  a  pound;  cutting  off  the  fingers  of  his  left 
hand  they  demanded  tauntingly  "  Ho,  Waldron !  does  your 
hand  weigh  a  pound  now  ?  " 

The  first  contact  of  civilization  with  barbarism  had  proved 
far  from  creditable  to  the  white  men  who  came  to  convert  and 
to  colonize.  Las  Casas  and  Eliot  are  names  that  stand  out 
amid  all  the  blackness  of  European  treachery  and  deceit  as  the 
friends  of  the  Indians,  luminous  and  peculiar  because  they 
were  exceptional.  The  Indians  of  colonial  days  had  but  few 
friends.  Amity  was  but  a  question  of  policy  dependent  only 
upon  the  relative  strength  or  weakness  of  the  white  man's  arm. 

It  is  small  wonder  that  the  Indian  grew  to  distrust  and 
despise  the  hollow  friendship  of  the  white  man.  It  is,  indeed, 
possible  to  find  both  force  and  feeling  in  the  story  that  Mr. 
Drake  tells  to  the  effect  that  a  white  man  once  meeting  an 
Indian  in  his  path  addressed  him  as  "  brother."  "  Ugh ! " 
grunted  the  Indian  with  an  expression  of  evident  meaning  on 
his  face,  "how  came  we  to  be  brothers?"  "Oh!  by  way  of 
Adam,  I  suppose,"  the  specious  white  man  replied.  "  Ugh  !  " 
grunted  the  Indian  again,  "  me  thank  him  Great  Spirit  we  no 
nearer  brothers.'' 


COLONIAL   INJUSTICE.  209 

The  evidence  is  undeniable,  declares  Dr.  Ellis,  that  in  the 
Indian  wars  of  the  colonists  "  the  civilized  man  was  generally 
the  aggressor,  and  though  he  expressed  horror  and  disgust  at 
the  barbarous  and  revolting  atrocities  of  savage  warfare,  his 
own  skill  and  cruelty  in  wreaking  vengeance  hardly  vindicated 
his  milder  humanity." 

Modern  apologists  for  the  later  policy  of  repression  and 
extermination  need  to  remember  this  as  they  lay  down  the 
barbarous  Western  dictum  that  the  only  good  Indian  is  a  dead 
Indian.  The  white  man  from  the  very  first  has  requited  kind 
ness  and  hospitality  with  oppression  and  cruelty,  and  it  is  little 
wonder  that  the  red-man  turned  at  last  upon  his  oppressor,  and 
displayed  in  his  defence  of  lodge-fire  and  hunting-ground  a 
patriotism  as  intense  and  devoted  as  was  ever  that  of  a  Tell  or 
a  Winkelried. 


"  He  saw  the  cloud  ordained  to  grow 

And  burst  upon  his  hills  in  woe; 

He  saw  his  people  withering  lie 

Beneath  the  invader's  evil  eye. 
Strange  feet  were  trampling  on  his  fathers'  bones; 

At  midnight  hour  he  woke  to  gaze 

Upon  his  happy  cabin's  blaze, 
And  listen  to  his  children's  dying  groans. 

He  saw  ;  and,  maddening  at  the  sight 

Gave  his  bold  bosom  to  the  fight ; 

To  tiger  rage  his  soul  was  driven, 
»  Mercy  was  not,  nor  sought  nor  given ; 

The  pale  man  from  his  lands  must  fly ; 

He  would  be  free,  or  he  would  die  !  "  * 

*  From  the  ode  by  Charles  Sprague  (1830),  said  to  be  one  of  the  most  fervent  appeals  in  behalf  of  justice  to  the 
Indian 


CHAPTER   XL 


PLACING    THE     RESPONSIBILITY. 


IT  is  to  be  regretted  that, 
upon  first  approach,  a  superior 
civilization  always  presents  its 
most  questionable  elements  to 
the  inferior.  The  viciousness 
and  crudities,  the  demoraliza 
tion  and  temptations  of  all  bor 
der  settlements  are  well-known. 
The  trapper,  the  trader,  the 
hunter  and  the  pioneer  as  they 
are  the  hardiest  are,  also,  too  often,  the  hardest  of  men. 

To  fight  with  Nature  for  subsistence  does  not  seem  to  sym 
metrically  develop  the  Christian  graces  and  the  free  life  of  the 
forest  and  the  hills  tends  more  to  license  than  to  simple  liberty. 
In  addition  to  this  it  may  be  asserted  that  far  too  many  of 
the  earlier  settlers  in  any  new  land  are  prompted  to  emigration 
by  greed  rather  than  by  the  nobler  qualities  of  manly  character. 
To  the  attainment  of  their  one  selfish  end  do  they  bend  not  only 
their  own  energies  and  endeavors  but,  quite  as  determinedly,  the 
plastic  nature  of  the  natives  with  whom  they  are  brought  into 
contact  and  of  whose  welfare  they  are  studiously  disregardful. 
The  fur  trader,  the  trapper,  the  Indian  pedler,  the  Canadian 


210 


PLACING    THE  RESPONSIBILITY.  211 

voyageur  and  the  coureur  de  bois  did  more  to  pervert  and  distort 
the  simple  Indian  manliness  than  it  was  possible  for  missionary 
or  apostle,  colonial  or  home  government  to  rectify  and  controvert. 
Individual  influence  is  always  more  powerful  than  indirect  or 
impersonal  effort. 

So,  while  it  is  a  fact  that  the  policy  of  the  colonial  and  the 
parent  governments  toward  the  Indians  was  based  upon  an 
attempted  equity,  and  that  the  lands  occupied  by  settlers  were, 
presumably,  to  be  acquired  only  by  purchase,  barter  or  treaty,  it 
is  also  beyond  dispute  that  the  business  transactions  and  espe 
cially  the  real  estate  ventures  of  individual  colonists  were  too 
often  in  direct  violation  of  treaty,  bargain  and  contract.  The 
agents  and  representatives  of  the  governments  were  often  them 
selves  the  most  culpable  and,  next  to  the  white  man's  rum,  the 
white  man's  peculiar  methods  of  land  traffic  with  the  Indian 
were  the  cause  of  frequent  and  bitter  hostilities. 

The  Indian's  views  on  the  land  question  were,  as  has  been 
shown,  peculiar.  The  tribal  tenure  of  land  was  in  perpetuity, 
and  no  individual  tribesman  had  authority  or  right,  as  an  indi 
vidual,  to  sell  a  single  foot  of  soil.  The  consent  of  the  tribe  was 
necessary  to  such  a  transaction,  and  as,  previous  to  the  white 
man's  coming,  no  land  sales  between  tribes  had  ever  taken  place 
this  new  order  of  things  as  it  demanded  new  requirements  was 
altogether  perplexing  to  the  Indian  mind. 

As  no  individual  Indian  could  obtain  absolute  title  to  land,  so 
could  no  individual  Indian  transfer  such  title  by  sale,  deed  or  gift. 
This  inability,  never  before  disputed  or  even  questioned,  nat 
urally  acted  as  an  unconscious  bias  in  the  mind  of  the  Indian, 
totally  unable  to  comprehend  the  white  man's  law  of  land 
purchase  and  tenure. 

The    sachem     Metacomet  —  otherwise    known    as    "  King 


212 


PLACING    THE   RESPONSIBILITY. 


Philip"  —  though  lavish  in  his  gifts  of  land  to  the  Massachusetts 
colonists  could  not  understand  why  his  tribe  should  not  be  per 
mitted  to  hunt  over  those  lands,  which,  so  he  supposed,  he  and 
his  white  neighbors  could  still  occupy  in  common. 

"  You  are  welcome,"  said  Archihes,  the  Maryland  sagamore, 
to  the  men  of  Calvert's  colony ;  "  we  will  use  one  table.     My 


"A   NEW    FEATURE    IN   THE    INDIAN   LANDSCAPE." 

people  shall  hunt  for  my  brothers,  and  all   things  shall  be  in 
common  between  us." 

But  things  could  not  be  in  common.  This  the  Indian, 
reared  to  vastly  different  ideas  of  property  and  of  living  than 
those  held  by  his  white  "brother,"  speedily  discovered.  His 
lands,  given  to  the  colonists  for  but  small  considerations,  were 
permanently  closed  to  him  ;  his  home,  invaded  by  the  white 


PLACING    THE   RESPONSIBILITY.  213 

man's  labor-saving  clothing  and  implements,  became  less  and 
less  self-dependent,  and  his  tribesmen,  unable  to  resist  the 
white  man's  seductive  barter  and  tempting  fire-water  grew 
dissatisfied,  quarrelsome  and,  even,  less  manly. 

The  very  "  improvements  "  of  civilization  were  factors  in  this 
deterioration  of  Indian  character.  "  With  the  introduction  of 
iron  and  brass  kettles,"  says  Dr.  Eggleston,  "and  poor  iron 
hatchets,  made  on  purpose  for  the  Indian  trade,  all  necessity  for 
earthen  pots  and  stone  hatchets  vanished ;  the  rudimentary 
arts  of  pottery  and  stone  cutting  were  quickly  forgotten  and  the 
Indian  took  a  step  backward  in  becoming  by  so  much  less  an 
artificer  and  by  so  much  more  a  mere  hunter.  .  .  .  The 
elaborate  fur  garments  were  ripped  up  and  sold,  and  their  kind 
made  no  more ;  the  duffel  cloth,  without  so  much  as  a  hem  or 
seam,  was  thrown  about  the  shoulders  and  the  Indian  was  more 
than  ever  a  savage." 

The  white  settler's  horses  —  a  new  feature  in  the  Indian 
landscape  —  trampled  down  the  unfenced  fields  of  standing  corn 
upon  which  the  Indian  so  largely  depended;  the  hogs  of  the 
colonists,  roving  at  will,  uprooted  the  inland  Indian's  garden 
beds  and  the  seaside  Indian's  clam  banks.  On  the  other  hand 
the  Indian  himself,  accustomed  to  the  belief  that  all  nature, 
animate  and  inanimate,  was  for  man's  subsistence  and  conven 
ience,  failed  to  respect  the  theory  of  property  in  live  stock  and 
regarding  the  white  man's  hogs,  poultry  and  cattle  as  lawful 
prey  hunted  them  as  he  had  always  hunted  the  wild  food-creat 
ures  of  his  native  woods. 

It  is  the  little  worries  of  life  that  make  up  an  aggregate  of 
woe,  and  the  most  destructive  wars  have  often  grown  from  the 
most  insignificant  causes.  The  accumulation  of  these  petty 
annoyances  on  both  sides  of  the  color  line  fostered  the  growing 


214  PLACING    THE   RESPONSIBILITY. 

seeds  of  discontent  and  finally  developed  into  animosity,  dispute 
and  open  rupture. 

The  colonial  political  system  also  largely  contributed  to  this 
uneasiness  and  final  disturbance.  The  Indian  was  a  thorough 
democrat.  He  knew  no  king  but  himself,  acknowledged  no 
authority  greater  than  himself  and  admitted  of  no  restraining 
government  except  that  of  his  own  democratic  tribe  in  which  he 
himself  was  as  great  a  power  as  any. 

Even  such  tribes  as  yielded  to  superior  force  —  as  did  the 
Delawares  to  the  Iroquois  —  and  made  regular  payments  of 
tribute  looked  upon  this  tribute  simply  as  a  prevention  of  con 
troversy  or  an  avoidance  of  war  with  the  powers  which  they 
knew  to  be  stronger  than  themselves. 

When  the  European  governments  without  show  of  reason 
or  justice,  began  to  claim  the  American  lands  as  their  property, 
they  based  their  claim  upon  the  right  by  discovery,  asserted  a 
proprietary  interest  in  the  lands  discovered  and  denied  to  the 
Indians  anything  beyond  a  possessory  title.  The  Indians  how 
ever  utterly  failed  to  appreciate  the  unreasonable  assertion  that 
they  were  no  longer  free  men  or  the  owners  of  the  lands  they 
occupied,  but  vassals  and  liegemen  of  an  unknown  and  far 
distant  power.  Unaccustomed  to  obey  their  own  chiefs  save 
at  their  own  royal  pleasure,  they  were  unable  to  comprehend 
the  demanded  submission  to  a  Spanish,  a  French  or  an 
English  king. 

We  have  seen  how  brutally  Spain  met  this  democratic 
denial  of  supremacy.  France  applied  to  it  the  same  tactics 
that  had  spread  blood  and  slaughter  among  the  Albigenses 
and  the  Camisards,  and  England,  harshly  exacting  submission 
where  none  was  due,  accounted  the  Indians  who  dared  with 
stand  the  colonial  tyranny  as  guilty  of  high  treason  and  visited 


PLACING    THE  RESPONSIBILITY. 


2I5 


them  with  the  punishment  of  traitors,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
followers  of  Philip  of  Pokanoket  and  the  Yemassee  "  rebels  "  of 
South  Carolina. 

Thus,  due  entirely  to  the  misunderstandings  of  conflicting 
natures,  the  brutalities  of  border  life  and  the  soulless  policy  of 
trade  that  ignored  every  virtue  for  the  sake  of  one  profitable 


HISPANIOLA. — SPAIN'S   FIRST   SLAUGHTER   GROUND    IN    AMERICA. 

barter,  were  Indian  wars  fastened  upon  the  red  and  the  white 
man  alike.  And  as,  almost  without  exception,  the  earlier 
colonial  wars  were  the  offsprings  of  white  aggression,  tyranny 
and  greed,  so  the  later  disturbances  —  from  those  of  Revolu 
tionary  times  to  Minnesota,  the  Lava  Beds  and  the  Apache  out 
breaks  of  to-day  —  have  the  same  basis  of  unstable  methods  and 
of  broken  faith  on  the  part  of  the  white  man. 

What  the  Indians  thought  of  this  one-sided  policy  may  be 


216  PLACING    TIfE   RESPONSIBILITY. 

gathered  from  the  remark  made  by  one  of  their  own  leaders. 
In  1794  an  American  officer  presented  a  Western  chief  with 
a  reconciliatory  medal  upon  one  side  of  which  was  represented 
President  Washington  standing  with  drawn  sword,  while  on 
the  other  appeared  an  Indian  burying  the  hatchet.  "  Ugh ! " 
grunted  the  chief,  at  once  appreciating  the  inconsistency,  "  why 
does  not  Great  Father  bury  his  hatchet,  too  ? " 

A  careful  study  into  the  causes  of  the  Indian  troubles  of  the 
past,  investigating  them,  State  by  State,  from  those  of  New  Eng 
land,  South  and  West,  to  the  distant  Pacific  coast,  will  show  that, 
almost  without  exception,  the  blame  in  the  matter  rests  directly 
or  indirectly  with  the  white  settlers. 

The  encroachments  upon  Indian  lands,  the  sale  of  whiskey 
among  the  native  population,  and  the  disregard  and  ill-treatment 
accorded  them  by  traders,  settlers  and  agents  have  all  contri 
buted  toward  an  Indian  hostility  that  has  alternately  smouldered 
and  blazed  out  from  the  first  days  of  colonization  to  the  present 
time. 

While  America  was  colonial  the  Indian  was  alike  the  tool 
and  the  terror  of  each  nationality  whose  colonies  were  here 
fostered.  Remorselessly  played  with  by  each  he  was  made  the 
instigating  cause  or  the  coercing  quality  by  each  unscrupulous 
national  rival.  And,  quite  as  positively,  too,  did  he  hold  the 
balance  of  power  between  England  and  France  on  the  North 
American  continent,  and  was  a  factor  which  neither  nation 
could  spare  from  its  territorial  schemes. 

During  the  revolt  of  the  colonies  against  the  power  of 
England  the  Indian  once  more  found  himself  in  a  quandary. 
Made  suspicious  by  repeated  grievances  and  broken  pledges,  the 
Indian  was  slow  to  form  new  alliance  or  allegiance.  Years  of 
slow  conquest  had  bound  him  at  last  in  fealty  to  the  English 


^COLONIES 

— O-D— 

THE  TIME  OF  THE 


PLACING    THE  RESPONSIBILITY.  217 

throne,  and  with  the  old  spirit  of  liberty  gone  he  was  unable  to 
appreciate  the  exalted  principles  of  resistance  to  tyranny  which 
he  had  repeatedly  tested  to  so  little  purpose. 

The  home  government  of  England  had  been  his  court  of 
last  resort,  his  one  bulwark  against  the  aggressions  of  the  settle 
ments.  To  see  his  natural  enemies  in  revolt  against  his  only 
protectors  would,  logically,  make  him  the  unhesitating  ally  of 
the  red-coated  warriors  who  fought  for  the  great  white  chief 
beyond  the  water  of  sunrise. 

His  loyalty  was  unquestioning,  unwavering  and  aggressive, 
and,  because  he  followed  the  dictates  of  his  reason  and  his  con 
science,  the  Indian  in  the  American  Revolution  has  always  been 
regarded  with  feelings  of  horror  and  detestation. 

The  Mohawk  Tha-yen-da-ne-gea,  upon  whose  English  name 
of  Joseph  Brant  has  been  heaped  every  contemptuous  adjective 
that  hatred  can  apply  to  cruelty,  saw  in  his  loyalty  to  England 
the  only  hope  of  independence  for  his  tribe,  and  the  man  who 
could  forget  his  careful  education  and  relapse  into  the  vengeance 
of  savagery  at  Wyoming  could  also  remember  his  own  demo 
cratic  birth  and  race  and  refuse  to  kneel  to  English  royalty  or 
kiss  the  kingly  hand  at  Windsor. 

Mr.  Lockwood  L.  Doty  in  his  sketch  of  the  position  of  the 
Iroquois  during  the  American  Revolution  says  "  It  was  a  dic 
tate  of  policy,  during  the  Revolution,  to  paint  the  Indian  as 
black  as  possible  in  crimes  and  cruelty,  and  to  hold  him  often 
responsible  for  deeds  of  which  it  might  easily  be  shown  the 
British  alone  were  guilty.  Since  then,  the  prejudice  has 
been  adroitly  fostered  by  those  whose  selfish  ends  it  sub 
served.  That  the  Indian  committed  excesses  and  barbarities 
it  would  be  in  vain  either  to  deny  or  palliate.  But  how  far  he 
was  justified  in  waging  the  only  system  of  warfare  known  to 


2i8  PLACING    THE  RESPONSIBILITY. 

his  race,  as  a  measure  of  retaliation,  it  is  for  the  moralist  to 
say.  If  the  whole  story  were  told,  if  the  Indian  could  tell 
his  side,  how  then  would  the  record  stand  ? " 

At  the  close  of  the  Revolution  the  territory  under  control 
of  the  white  race  in  North  America  embraced  the  entire  eastern 
slope  of  the  Appalachian  system  reaching  from  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  to  the  St.  Lawrence.  Over  the  greater  part  of  this, 
with  the  exception  of  the  English  possessions  in  Canada,  the 
new  republic  had  control.  Florida  and  Louisiana  were  so 
speedily  ceded  to  the  United  States  that  their  possessions 
along  the  Gulf  are  really  to  be  considered  as  the  property  of 
the  Republic. 

Although  the  colonial  possessions  were  acknowledged  to 
extend  westward  as  far  as  the  Mississippi  River,  only  a  com 
paratively  small  section  of  this  indefinite  area  was  actually 
settled.  The  Ohio  River  was  the  limit  of  even  the  sparsest 
civilization  as  it  was  also  understood  by  the  Indian  tribes  to  be 
the  actual  and  permanent  boundary  of  white  occupation. 
/  At  a  treaty  concluded  at  Fort  Stanwix  in  1768,  between 
the  Indian  commissioner,  Sir  William  Johnson,  and  the  Iro- 
quois  tribes,  it  was  agreed  that  the  Ohio  River  should  be  the 
western  boundary  of  English  occupation.  This  was  but  car 
rying  out  the  policy  of  the  British  government,  made  public  by 
official  proclamation  in  1763,  that  the  entire  Western  country 
was  to  be  reserved  for  the  use  and  permanent  occupation  of  the 
aborigines  then  in  possession.  "  All  other  persons,"  says  Mr. 
Whittlesey,  "  were  forbidden  to  remain  or  settle  within  this 
Western  region,  and  thus  the  most  civilized  nation  of  the  earth 
decreed  the  continuance  of  barbarism  over  the  best  portion  of 
North  America." 

So,  too,  during  the  progress  of  the  American  revolution,  the 


PLACING    THE  RESPONSIBILITY.  219 

British  authorities  in  Canada  "solemnly  granted  the  Western 
domain  to  the  Indians  residing  upon  it." 

Such  thoughtful  and  observing  Americans  as  Washington 
and  others  of  his  time  foresaw  the  inevitable,  and  openly 
declared  the  impossibility  of  this  limitation  by  the  English 
government.  But  to  the  Indians  it  seemed  only  just  and  proper, 
and  trusting  to  the  promises  of  England  they  ceded  the  East 
to  the  white  man  on  condition  of  their  unobstructed  possession 
of  the  West. 

It  was  to  this  disputed  question  of  land  limits  that  most  of 
the  Indian  troubles  succeeding  the  Revolution  were  due.  And 
thus  to  an  era  of  personal  aggravations  succeeded  an  era  of  race 
quarrels  for  absolute  possession. 

The  foresight  of  Washington  as  he  studied  the  future  from 
the  white  man's  standpoint  was  paralleled  by  that  of  the  more 
patriotic  Indian  chieftains  as  from  their  own  barbaric  standpoint 
they  regarded  the  white  man's  "  inching  along."  And,  as  they 
began  to  appreciate  the  truth  that  there  was  no  limit  to  the 
desires  and  demands  of  the  white  settlers  who  were  each  year 
increasing  in  numbers  and  pertinacity,  they  began  to  advocate 
native  confederation  for  mutual  protection  and  for  white 
extermination. 

Pontiac,  chief  of  the  Ottawas,  whom  historians  have  called 
the  Napoleon  of  his  race,  early  foresaw  the  necessity  for  Indian 
confederation  and,  even  before  the  Revolution,  sought  to  join  the 
tribes  in  an  aggressive  union  which  by  simultaneous  and  con 
centrated  efforts,  should  drive  the  English  eastward  into  the 
great  ocean  over  which  they  had  come  to  invade  and  appropriate 
the  Indian's  heritage. 

The  Conspiracy  of  Pontiac,  in  1763-64,  was  the  first  united, 
aggressive  stand  against  land  absorption  by  the  American 


220  PLACING   THE  RESPONSIBILITY. 

Indian.  "King  Philip's  War,"  in  1675,  although  it  has  fre 
quently  been  regarded  as  a  united  stand  against  land  appro 
priation  was  in  reality  only  the  protest  of  savagery  against 
civilization  based  upon  personal  grievances  and  barbaric  ani 
mosities.  There  is,  indeed,  no  proof  that  Philip's  conspiracy 
was  a  combined  effort  of  the  New  England  tribes  or  anything 
more  than  an  Indian  uprising  provoked  by  the  fiery  nature  of 
so  relentless  a  foeman  as  were  the  sachem  Metacomet. 

The  spirit  of  tribal  jealousy  inherent  in  Indian  nature,  and 
which  the  kinship  distinctions  and  totem  divisions  at  once 
created  and  fostered,  made  any  intertribal  union  impossible. 
The  natural  and  absolute  independence  of  the  Indian,  which 
resented  even  the  authority  of  his  own  tribal  chief,  scorned  any 
assumption  of  leadership  by  chieftains  of  other  and  heretofore 
rival  tribes.  Algonquin  and  Iroquois,  Ojibway  and  Dakota, 
Cheyenne  and  Pawnee  could  not  so  far  forget  the  traditions  of 
their  fathers  and  the  almost  ceaseless  feuds  of  centuries  as  to 
exchange  the  wampum  belts  in  mutual  and  defensive  union. 

All  the  art  of  a  prudent  leader,  as  Mr.  Parkman  says,  could 
scarcely  prevent  dormant  jealousies  from  starting  into  open 
strife.  Pontiac's  great  scheme  failed  and  so  too  did  all  the 
later  attempts  at  Indian  union.  Black  Hawk  and  Red  Jacket, 
Tecumthe  and  Asseola,  Joseph  the  Nez  Perce  and  Red  Cloud 
the  Sioux  alike  have  tried  and  alike  have  failed  upon  this 
unstable  basis  of  race  confederation.  The  animosities  of  totem 
and  of  clan  proved  more  antagonistic  than  even  the  invincible 
arms  of  the  mutually  hated  white  man. 

Savagery  can  never  sink  its  own  personality  even  in  the 
hour  of  supreme  danger.  The  history  of  the  world  shows  that 
the  union  of  rivals  against  the  common  foe  is  possible  only  to  a 
positive  and  vigilant  civilization. 


ATTACK    ON    STOCKADE. 


PLACING    THE  RESPONSIBILITY.  223 

But  the  arrogance  of  this  same  civilization,  as  it  was  the 
underlying  cause  of  the  Indian  troubles  of  the  colonial  days,* 
has  also,  as  certainly,  been  at  the  bottom  of  all  the  more  recent 
outbreaks. 

The  vitiating  influences  of  the  negative  side  of  civilization  — 
its  perfidy,  its  haughtiness,  its  contemptuous  disregard  of  what 
it  deems  an  inferior  race,  its  debasing  influences,  its  whiskey 
and  its  wiles  —  have  ever  been  the  persistent  and  pitiless 
obstruction  to  every  conciliatory  policy. 

The  Indian  speedily  discovered,  to  use  the  words  of  an 
earlier  writer,  that  "  it  is  the  Indian's  property  in  the  white 
man's  hands  that  gives  the  white  man  importance,  makes  him 
arrogant  and  covetous,  while  he  despises  the  Indian  as  soon  as 
his  ends  are  answered  and  when  the  Indian  has  nothing  more 
to  part  with." 

An  offensive  manner  always  breeds  retaliation.  The  wild 
love  of  freedom  and  impatience  of  all  control  which,  according 
to  Mr.  Parkman's  observation,  mark  the  Indian  race,  is  the  very 
one  to  protest  against  an  assumption  of  superiority  by  those 
who  are  neither  physically  superior  nor  morally  helpful.  From 
the  days  of  Pontiac  the  Ottawa  to  those  of  Kient-poos  the  Modoc 
and  Moc-peah-lu-tah  the  Sioux,t  Indian  retaliation  has  always 
proceeded  from  the  haughty  and  offensive  manners  of  the  set 
tlers,  soldiers  or  agents  toward  the  natives  with  whom  they  are 
brought  into  contact. 

"  The  moral  influence  of  the  soldiers  upon  the  Indian,"  says 
Mr.  Howland  in  his  paper  on  "  Our  Indian  Brothers,"  "  has  been 
of  the  worst  character."  The  barbarities  of  the  trappers  and 

*  In  the  "  Remonstrance  "  of  the  deputies  from  New  Netherland  to  the  home  government  of  Holland  in  1634  it 
is  complained  against  the  Dutch  West  India  Company  that  "the  Christians  are  treated  almost  like  Indians  in  the 
purchase  of  necessaries  which  they  cannot  do  without  "  -  an  unconscious  acknowledgment  of  the  contemptuous 
and  unjust  bearing  of  these  very  complainants  themselves  toward  the  people  whom  they  had  displaced. 

T  The  native  names  of  "  Captain  Jack  "  and  "  Red  Cloud." 


224  PLACING    THE  RESPONSIBILITY. 

the  villainy  of  the  fur-traders  are  too  well  known  to  need  details 
in  proof.  The  open  immorality  and  undiluted  selfishness  of  the 
border  settlements  develop  the  worst  traits  not  only  in  the  white 
but  in  the  Indian  nature.  Truly,  as  was  said  at  the  opening  of 
this  chapter,  it  is  to  be  regretted  that,  upon  first  approach,  a 
superior  civilization  always  presents  its  most  questionable  ele 
ments  to  the  inferior. 

It  was  the  existence  of  these  demoralizing  influences,  pushed 
to  the  extreme  of  aggravation  and  exasperation,  that  brought 
about  the  later  Indian  troubles.  A  glance  at  the  succession  of 
these  "  troubles  "  will  warrant  this  assertion. 

/  The  conspiracy  of  Pontiac  in  1763  was  due  to  the  rascality 
of  the  English  fur-traders,  the  tyranny  of  the  British  soldiers 
and  the  unwarranted  intrusion  by  settlers  upon  the  Indian's 
lands. 

The  war  with  Tecumthe  in  181 1  was  caused  by  the  encroach 
ment  by  settlers  upon  Indian  lands  in  open  violation  of  treaty. 

The  Creek  troubles  in  Georgia  in  1813  were  brought  about 
by  the  endeavors  of  the  State  of  Georgia  to  enforce  its  remark 
able  compact  with  the  United  States  government  by  which  it 
bound  itself  "  to  extinguish  the  Indian  title  to  all  the  lands 
within  the  State  of  Georgia." 

Black  Hawk's  War  in  1832  along  the  Upper  Mississippi, 
resulted  from  the  indignities  visited  upon  this  eminent  and 
patriotic  chieftain  and  upon  his  tribesmen  by  the  pioneers  and 
settlers  who  evinced  the  most  determined  eagerness  for  the 
forcible  removal  of  the  Indians.  In  fact,  in  the  border  wars  of 
the  West,  almost  without  exception,  the  frontiersman  has  not 
only  commenced  the  trouble,  but  carried  off  the  palm  for  cruelty 
and  inhumanity. 

The  Seminole  War  of  1835  which  was  never  upheld  by  the 


PLACING    THE  RESPONSIBILITY. 


225 


best  men  of  the  Florida  tribes,  was  the  result  of  open  provoca 
tion  by  lawless  frontiersmen,  retaliation  by  the  "  rabble  "  of  the 
corrupted  Seminoles  and  the  double  dealings  of  the  Scotch  half- 
breed  demagogue  Asseola  who  presumed  to  leadership. 

The    Pueblo   massacres  of    1847  were  due   entirely  to  the 
Cruelty  of  Mexican  desperadoes. 


MILITARY  TYRANNY. 


The  Cayuse  massacres  among  the  Oregon  missionaries  in 
1847  were  instigated  and  abetted  by  the  Jesuit  priests. 

The  California  massacres  of  1851  were  the  result  of  the 
greed  of  the  gold  hunters  and,  primarily,  of  the  licentiousness 
of  a  drunken  miner. 

The  fatal  Sioux  and  Cheyenne  wars  of  1854  were  due  to 
a  combination  of  Mormon  duplicity  and  military  brutality. 

The  Oregon  massacres  and  the  Klickitat  wars  of  1855  were 


226  PLACING   THE   RESPONSIBILITY. 

the  result  of  the  foolish  insolence  and  fiendish  attacks  of  the 
white  traders  and  settlers. 

The  Digger  war  of  1858  was  simply  a  butchery  by  the 
white  men  of  these  most  inoffensive  of  all  the  Indians  because 
they  drove  away  the  cattle  they  found  eating  their  acorns. 

The  Navajo  trouble  of  1858  was  caused  by  Mormon 
•diplomacy  and  Mexican  feuds. 

The  Apache  outbreak  of  1861  was  the  beginning  of  yet 
unsettled  trouble  with  this  ferocious  race  —  made  ferocious, 
however,  by  the  white  man's  ferocity.  The  cause  is  found  in 
the  mistaken  treatment  of  these  Indians  by  the  soldiers  and 
frontiersmen  at  a  time  when  they  might  have  been  conciliated, 
so  hostile  were  they  to  the  tyrannical  Mexicans  and  so  favorably 
inclined  toward  the  new  comers. 

The  fatal  Sioux  war  which,  in  1862,  ravaged  Minnesota  and 
marked  a  bloody  trail  across  that  growing  State,  was  the  result 
of  governmental  trifling  and  delay  and  of  the  agents'  trickery 
and  the  white  man's  frauds. 

The  Arapaho  and  Cheyenne  troubles  of  1864  were  induced 
by  the  shifting  plans  of  government,  and  the  failure  to  carry  out 
treaty  agreements.  It  was  fanned  into  fury  by  the  brutality  of 
the  soldiers  who  were  sent  among  them  to  "  adjust  difficulties." 

The  Sioux  war  of  1866  was  the  vigorous  protest  of  these 
despondent  and  oft-removed  Indians  against  forcible  dispos 
session  from  the  lands  given  them  in  Dakota. 

The  Blackfeet  outbreak  of  1869  was  occasioned  by  bar 
barities  committed  by  lawless  white  men  ("  roughs  and  whiskey- 
sellers,"  General  Sully  called  them)  and  for  which  the  Indians 
were  punished. 

The  Modoc  "war"  of  1872  was  caused  by  vacillation,  indif 
ference  and  contradiction  on  the  part  of  the  government. 


IN   CONTACT  WITH  CIVILIZATION. 


PLACING   THE  RESPONSIBILITY.  229 

The  Sioux  war  of  1876,  in  which  Custer  and  his  command 
were  slaughtered,  was  due  to  the  neglect  on  the  part  of  the 
United  States  government  to  maintain  its  promises,  as  also 
to  the  forcible  occupation  of  the  Black  Hills  by  settlers  and 
gold  hunters. 

The  Nez  Perce  "war"  of  1876-77  —  "the  meanest,  most 
contemptible,  least  justifiable  thing  that  the  United  States  was 
ever  guilty  of,"  so  declares  Mr.  Dunn,  in  his  history  of  Indian 
Wars  in  the  West,*  —  was  due  to  the  "  folly,  weakness  or  dis 
honesty  "  of  the  government's  Indian  agents. 

The  foregoing  summary,  incomplete  and  fragmentary  as  it 
is,  indicates  that  the  cry  of  the  Indian  hater  for  complete 
extermination  is  but  the  logical  outcome  of  years  of  injustice 
and  treachery  toward  the  red-man  on  the  part  of  the  very 
people  among  whom  the  Indian  hater  is  found. 

From  the  days  of  the  first  discoverers  until  now  the  Ameri 
can  Indian  has  been  alike  the  tool  and  the  scapegoat  of  the 
negative  forces  of  Christian  civilization.  Despoiled,  despised 
and  trifled  with — whenever  he  has  protested  he  has  been  tyran 
nized  over,  whenever  he  has  sought  to  strike  in  defence  of  his 
rights  he  has  been  branded  as  an  outlaw  and  hunted  down 
with  relentless  ferocity.  From  the  first  the  white  man's  policy 
of  aggression  has  been  the  only  one  with  which  the  settler  has 
met  the  rightful  possessor  of  the  soil  he  would  appropriate. 

What  head,  then,  could  Indian  patriotism,  handicapped  as  it 
was  by  totemic  rivalries,  make  against  a  united  system  of  fron 
tier  aggressions?  The  white  man's  policy  was  backed  by  a 
public  opinion  always  hostile  to  the  Indian,  and  by  the  settled 
theory  that  America  was  the  ultimate  and  legitimate  posses 
sion  of  the  white  race. 

*  "  The  Massacres  of  the  Mountains,"  by  J.  P.  Dunn,  jr. 


23o  PLACING    THE   RESPONSIBILITY. 

Greed  stops  at  no  such  sentimental  barrier  as  justice  in 
pursuit  of  its  desires.  Colonization  permits  no  obstacle  to 
block  its  pathway  toward  future  empire.  Civilization  admits 
of  no  concession  to  barbarism ;  and  the  conciliatory  measures 
of  to-day  are  forgotten  in  the  territorial  desires  of  to-morrow. 

So,  step  by  step,  has  the  Indian  been  pushed  from  the 
inheritance  of  his  fathers.  Treaties  have  been  violated,  national 
honor  forfeited,  and  any  attempt  at  resistance  has  been  met  by 
coercion,  conquest,  and  relentless  "  punishment.'* 

"  I  love  the  English  so  well,"  said  Maqua-comen,  chief  of 
the  Paw-tux-ents  of  Maryland,  in  1634,  "that  if  they  should 
go  about  to  kill  me,  if  I  had  so  much  breath  as  to  speak,  I 
would  command  my  people  not  to  revenge  my  death,  for  I  know 
that  they  would  do  no  such  a  thing,  except  it  were  through  my 
own  fault." 

u  There  is  not  one  white  man  who  loves  an  Indian,"  said 
Sitting  Bull,  the  warlike  Ogallala,  in  1876,  "and  not  a  true 
Indian  but  hates  a  white  man." 

And  this  "  change  of  heart  "  which  less  than  three  centu 
ries  have  witnessed,  is  the  sole  result  of  the  contact  between 
Christian  civilization  and  progressive  barbarism.  To  this  end 
has  come  the  friendship  that  saw  in  the  earliest  discoverers  the 
messengers  from  the  gods,  and  met  them  with  open-handed 
hospitality  and  signs  of  friendliest  welcome.  It  is  logical,  per 
haps  ;  it  was,  possibly,  inevitable ;  but  yet  a  lover  of  justice 
might  exclaim  with  Cassio,  "  The  pity  of  it,  lago !  O,  lago,  the 
pity  of  it,  lago !  " 


CHAPTER   XII. 


PUSHED   TO   THE   WALL. 


ED  into  almost  immediate  antagonism 
the  relations  between   the  red-man 
and  the  white  were  from  the 
very  first  strained  and  hostile. 
The    tyrannous  selfishness  of 
Spain,  the  ill-concealed  greed 
of  France,  the  needless  stern 
ness  of  England  and  the  offen 
sive    assumption    of   personal 
superiority  by  settlers  of  every 
European  nation  that  sent  its 
swarms  of  good  and  bad  alike 
to  this  possible  El  Dorado  of  the  West,  could  not 
but  have  a  disastrous  effect  upon  the  Indian  nature. 

In  defence  of  this  European  aggression  it  must  be  said  that 
desire  is  seldom  far-seeing.  Present  benefit  is  the  main  end  in 
view,  and  not  one  of  the  early  colonists  but  felt  that  he  was 
doing  at  once  the  Lord's  will  and  his  own  in  thus  occupying 
the  heritage  of  the  heathen.  "  The  Lord  God  of  our  fathers 
hath  given  to  us  the  land  of  the  heathen  people  amongst  whom 
we  live  for  a  rightful  possession,"  said  the  Reverend  Increase 

Mather ;  and  the  twenty-four  dollars  for  which  the  Dutch  pur- 

231 


232  PUSHED    TO    THE    WALL. 

chased  New  York,  the  one  hundred  and  forty-four  fathoms  of 
wampum  for  which  the  English  obtained  Boston,  the  tricky 
"  walking  purchase  "  by  which  the  Quakers  pocketed  Pennsyl 
vania,  the  trifling  bit  of  copper  for  which  the  Virginia  colony 
secured  Richmond,  were  deemed  by  the  purchasers  as  full  and 
honest  settlement  for  what  the  red  people,  from  whom  the  pur 
chases  were  made,  could  never  care  to  use. 

But  he  who  has  always  been  free  illy  brooks  dictation  and 
gratuitous  authority.  The  Indian,  as  has  been  shown,  was 
totally  unable  to  comprehend  the  peculiar  and  unjust  claims  to 
possession  set  up  by  the  different  and  rival  governments  beyond 
the  Great  Salt  Water.  He  had  no  idea  of  absolutely  parting 
with  his  land,  but  supposed  that  he  had  merely  admitted  his 
white  "  brother "  to  a  share  in  his  benefits. 

When,  therefore,  he  once  understood-  that  a  community  of 
interest  was  impossible,  and  that  his  lands  had  actually  been 
parted  with  for  trifles  that  soon  disappeared,  he  began,  naturally, 
to  resent  the  white  men's  methods  of  land  absorption,  as  well  as 
their  dogmatic  and  unelastic  religions,  their  antagonistic  cus 
toms,  their  hollow  proffers  of  friendship,  their  arrogant  claims 
to  a  personal  superiority,  their  tricks  of  trade,  of  wisdom  and  of  / 
law. 

"  Fear  nothing,  friend,"  said  Oglethorpe,  when  one  of  the 
Cherokee  chiefs  met  him  in  conference.  "Fear  nothing;  speak 
freely." 

The  savage  chief  of  the  free  mountain  tribes  of  Georgia 
looked  proudly  at  the  Englishman.  "  I  always  speak  freely,"  he 
replied.  "  Why  should  I  fear  ?  Am  I  not  now  among  friends  ? 
I  never  feared,  even  among  my  enemies." 

But  the  time  came  when  the  Indian  learned  to  fear,  not  the 
might  but  the  wiles  of  his  new  neighbors.  Acknowledging 


rr 


AN    EPISODE   OF   THE    SEM1NOLE    WAR. 


PUSHED    TO    THE    WALL.  235 

their  mental  superiority,  he  came  at  last  to  fear  their  methods 
which  always  resulted  in  his  discomfiture  and  in  their  benefit. 
"  The  natural  character  of  the  Indian,  so  far  as  I  have  had 
opportunity  for  observing  it,"  says  Mr.  J.  B.  Harrison,  "  has  too 
much  of  the  moral  element  in  it  for  him  to  be  able  long  to 
maintain  his  ground  in  the  state  of  war  which  in  so  great 
degree  constitutes  the  substance  and  current  practical  experi 
ence  of  our  civilization.  He  is  too  receptive,  for  his  own  inter 
est  in  this  world,  to  the  simple,  practical  teaching  of  the  New 
Testament.  He  does  not  understand  injustice  on  the  part  of 
those  whom  he  regards  as  his  superiors,  and  his  faculties  are 
depressed  and  benumbed  by  it." 

If  the  "  simple,  practical  teaching  of  the  New  Testament  " 
had  been  given  him  at  the  outset  the  Indian  would  have  been 
more  receptive  of  the  "black  robe's"  message.  But  Jesuit  and 
Protestant,  Lutheran  and  Moravian  began  and  persevered  in  a 
doctrinal  and  dogmatic  interpretation  of  the  Gospel  that  excited 
both  derision  and  scorn  in  their  hearers  —  themselves  not  alto 
gether  deficient  in  a  rude  philosophy,  which  even  the  absurdities 
of  superstition  and  sorcery  could  not  destroy.  Membertou's 
desire  to  include  "  moose  meat  and  fish  "  in  the  immortal  petition 
for  "our  daily  bread "  was  but  the  Indian's  understanding  of  a 
proper  request  to  a  manitou,  and  there  was  certainly  an  Apparent 
logic  in  the  rejoinder  of  the  chief  who  laid  a  hypothetical  case 
before  the  missionary.  "S'pose  have  bad  squaw,"  he  said;  "two 
children ;  one  of  'em  squaw  love ;  other  she  hate  and  kill. 
What  do?"  "She  must  be  hung,"  replied  the  law-abiding 
missionary.  "  Ugh,"  said  the  chief,  "go,  then,  and  hang  your 
god.  You  make  'im  just  like  squaw." 

The  chiefs  and  medicine  men,  loyal  to  the  teachings  and 
traditions  of  their  fathers,  saw  in  the  abstruse  religion  of  the 


236  PUSHED    TO    THE    WALL. 

white  men  only  contradiction,  controversy  and  a  means  of 
disturbance.  Wedded  to  the  old  forms,  which,  before  they  had 
become  overlaid  with  mystery,  absurdity  and  superstition,  did 
contain  some  rude  and  axiomatic  philosophy,  the  more  thought 
ful  among  the  leading  Indians  could  see  no  benefit  in  a  creed 
that  seemed  to  teach  the  very  intolerance  they  despised.  Even 
those  therefore  who  were  disposed  to  be  friendly  to  the  white 
man  —  chiefs  like  Massasoit  and  Pow-ha-tan*  drew  the  line  at 
religious  interference.  Massasoit  sought  promises  from  the 
Pilgrims  that  no  effort  should  be  made  to  proselyte  his  tribes 
men.  Uncas,  sachem  of  the  Mohegans,  forbade  the  conversion 
of  his  warriors,  and  the  "  Mico,"  or  chieftain  of  the  Yamicraws, 
though  friendly  to  Oglethorpe  and  the  English,  objected  to 
the  teachings  of  the  white  missionaries  among  his  tribesmen. 
Eliot's  two  hundred  "praying  Indians,"  even  more  than  the 
land  greediness  of  the  Pilgrims,  were  the  cause  of  "  King 
Philip's  War." 

It  must  be  added  that  the  conduct  of  the  missionaries 
themselves  did  not  wholly  remove  this  constitutional  objection 
to  conversion.  They  were,  as  has  been  said,  too  often  dog 
matic,  opinionated,  relentless,  and  inconsiderate,  and  very  few 
among  either  the  French  or  the  English  preachers  were  en 
tirely  free  from  the  influences  engendered  by  the  hostile 
rivalries  of  their  respective  governments. 

In  1696  an  Indian  chief  told  a  Boston  minister  that  a 
French  "  black  robe,"  while  instructing  the  Indians  in  the 
Christian  religion,  had  assured  them  that  the  Saviour  was  a 
Frenchman  ;  that  he  had  been  murdered  by  Englishmen,  and 

*This  is  but  another  indication  of  the  confusion  as  to  the  real  names  of  historic  Indians  already  referred  to. 
"  Powhatan's  "  name  was  Wa-bun-so-na-cook,  but  as  the  chief  of  the  warlike  Virginian  confederacy  in  which  the 
tribe  of  the  Pow-ha-tans  was  the  leading  element  he  received  from  his  white  neighbors  the  name  of  his  tribe  rather 
than  his  own  personal  appellation  —  doubtless  because  of  the  superstition  of  the  Indian  which  studiously  concealed 
his  proper  name. 


PUSHED    TO    THE    WALL.  237 

that,  further,'  when  he  arose  from  the  dead  and  went  up  into 
heaven,  he  had  prepared  the  "  happy  hunting  grounds "  alone 
for  the  allies  of  France.  Therefore,  the  "  black  robe  "  declared, 
all  who  desired  his  saving  grace  must  recommend  them 
selves  to  his  favor  by  siding  with  France  in  its  hostility  to 
England  —  for  this  was  Christ's  quarrel. 

Red  Jacket,  the  Seneca,  the  last  of  the  Indian  philosophers, 
on  being  asked  why  he  was  opposed  to  the  work  of  the  mis 
sionaries  said  :  "  Because  they  do  no  good.  If  they  are  not 
useful  to  the  white  people,  why  do  they  send  them  among  the 
Indians  ?  If  they  are  useful  to  the  white  people  and  do  them 
good,  why  do  they  not  keep  them  at  home  ?  The  white  men 
are  surely  bad  enough  to  need  the  labor  of  every  one  who  can 
make  them  better.  These  men  know  that  we  do  not  under 
stand  their  religion.  We  cannot  read  their  book.  They  tell  us 
different  stories  about  what  it  contains,  and  we  believe  they 
make  the  book  talk  to  suit  themselves.  The  Great  Spirit  will 
not  punish  us  for  what  we  do  not  know.  He  will  do  justice  to 
his  red  children.  These  black  coats  talk  to  the  Great  Spirit 
and  ask  for  light  that  we  may  see  as  they  do,  when  they  are 
blind  themselves  and  quarrel  about  the  light  which  guides 
them." 

Of  similar  tenor  is  a  story  that  Mr.  Drake  tells  of  a 
Swedish  minister  who  recounted  to  some  Indian  chiefs  the 
principal  biblical  facts  upon  which  his  religion  rested  —  such 
as  the  fall  of  our  first  parents  in  Eden,  etc.  When  he 
had  finished  an  Indian  orator  rose  to  thank  him.  "  What 
you  have  told  us,"  said  the  orator,  "  is  all  very  good.  It 
is  indeed  bad  to  eat  apples.  It  is  better  to  make  them  all 
into  cider.  We  are  much  obliged  by  your  kindness  in  coming 
so  far  to  tell  us  those  things  which  you  have  heard  from  your 


238  PUSHED   TO    THE    WALL. 

mothers."  Then  the  speaker  proceeded  to  tell  the  missionary 
one  of  the  Indian  legends,  but  the  minister  interrupted  him, 
saying  that  the  legend  was  all  falsehood,  while  the  story  he 
had  told  was  sacred  truth.  "  My  brother,"  said  the  Indian, 
indignantly,  "  it  seems  to  me  that  your  friends  have  not  done 
you  justice  in  your  education.  They  have  not  well  instructed 
you  in  the  rules  of  common  civility.  You  see  that  we,  who 
understand  and  practice  these  rules,  believe  all  your  stories ; 
why  do  you  refuse  to  believe  ours  ?  " 

This  toleration  on  the  part  of  the  Indian  met  only  with 
intolerance  on  the  part  of  his  teachers.  To  intolerance  was 
added  that  haughty  and  foolish  pride  of  blood  that  saw  in  the 
Indians  an  inferior  race  and  alienated  friends  while  it  angered 
foes.  "Nothing,"  says  Mr.  Hutchinson,  "has  more  effectually 
defeated  the  endeavors  for  Christianizing  the  Indians." 

So  the  first  much-vaunted  measure,  which  every  government 
that  sent  its  explorers  and  colonists  into  the  Western  wilderness 
advanced  as  their  reason  for  occupation  —  the  conversion  of 
the  barbarians  —  failed  of  success,  as  false  methods  always  fail. 
"  Under  this  forced  training,"  says  Dr.  Ellis,  "  the  Indian  lost 
whatever  of  spontaneous  or  inherent  simplicity  or  dignity  he 
might  have  caught  as  he  roamed  the  woods,  a  child  of  nature. 
The  virility  of  his  manhood  yielded  to  a  humiliated  sense  of 
inferiority.  His  former  attitude  of  spirit  which  stood  for  self- 
respect  was  bowed  into  conscious  dread,  though  not  always 
deference,  for  the  white  race." 

Hand  in  hand  with  the  unsuccessful  attempts  at  conversion 
went  the  more  successful  effort  at  colonization.  Here  was  no 
abstruse  theory.  The  white  man  wanted  the  land;  he  was 
determined  to  have  it ;  he  did  ha^e  it. 

The  communistic  principles  of  the  Indian  prevented  him 


PUSHED    TO    THE    WALL. 


239 


from  understanding  the  theory  of  absolute  purchase  or  absolute 
possession.  The  childlike  nature  of  the  red-man  at  once  de 
sired  what  attracted  it.  "  You  shall  have  this  or  these  for  so 
much,  or  for  such  a  tract  of  land,"  said  the  colonist.  To  the 
Indian  the  land  was  but  a  vague  quantity ;  the  trinkets  or 
implements  of  the  white  man 
seemed  a  very  tangible  one.  The 
bargain  was  made,  the  land  was 
occupied,  and  only  when  he  was 
excluded  therefrom  did  the  Indian 
realize  what  he  had  done.  No 
Indian  could  dispose  of  land  as 
an  individual.  It  was  not  his  to 
dispose  of.  The  whole  tribe  was 
concerned  in  the  doings  of  each 
of  its  members.  An  infraction 
of  the  hereditary  communistic 
principle  led  therefore  to  tribal 
quarrels  as  well  as  to  troubles  with 
the  new  occupants  of  the  tribal 
lands,  and  the  foolish  bargain  of 
an  individual  Indian  often  brought 
upon  the  settlers  the  fury  and 
vengeance  of  an  entire  clan. 

All  through  the  colonial  times  the  policy  of  purchasing 
lands  was  pursued  by  the  colonists,  and  with  each  purchase  the 
Indian  was  crowded  westward.  The  actual  area  of  occupation 
was  so  small,  little  real  trouble  grew  from  this  cause.  Had 
the  personal  bearing  of  the  white  settlers  toward  their  red 
neighbors  been  less  arrogant,  the  era  of  colonization  would  have 
been  one  of  peace,  rather  than  of  disturbance  and  of  blood. 


THE  WHITE    MAN    WANTED   THE 
LAND." 


240 


PUSHED    TO    THE 


But  with  the  increase  of  immigration  that  followed  the 
Revolution,  more  and  more  land  was  needed,  and  to  the 
policy  of  purchase  succeeded  that  of  treaty.  The  State  and 
National  governments  sought  to  obtain  the  land  and  avoid 
disputes  by  treaties  of  peace  and  possession  with  the  border 


FIGHTING  THE    INDIANS   ON    THE   VIRGINA    FRONTIER. 

tribes,  and  in  1804  it  was  agreed  by  the  United  States  govern 
ment  that  the  Indians  were  to  retain  possession  even  of  lands 
acquired  by  treaty  until  such  lands  were  sold  to  actual  settlers. 
This  policy  however  led  only  to  confusion  and  trouble. 
Certain  white  families  who,  says  Mr.  Wilkie,  "  probably  con 
sidered  an  Indian's  title  to  lite,  land  and  liberty  as  merely 
nominal  and  of  no  account  when  measured  against  the  '  rights ' 


PUSHED    TO    THE    WALL.  241 

of  the  white  man  moved  on  to  land  which  was  actually  occu 
pied  by  the  Indians."  Trouble  of  course  ensued,  the  govern 
ment  came  to  the  aid  of  the  white  "  squatters  "  and  finally, 
contrary  to  treaty  stipulations,  dispossessed  the  Indians. 

Thus  to  solemn  treaty  succeeded  the  era  of  expatriation 
and  the  Indians  were  crowded  still  further  westward. 

In  1833,  after  repeated  seasons  of  troublesome  and  disas 
trous  wars,  and  after  the  treaty  plan  had  been  proved  impracti 
cable,  the  United  States  attempted  the  Reservation  plan  —  the 
practical  imprisonment  of  the  Indians  upon  tracts  of  lands 
which,  it  was  supposed,  would  never  be  needed  for  settlement. 
These  Reservations  were  placed  under  the  charge  and  control 
of  agents  appointed  by  the  government  and  would,  it  was 
hoped,  prepare  the  Indian  for  self-support  and  gradual  civiliza 
tion.  The  largest  of  these  arbitrary  land  prisons  was  the  tract 
to  the  southwest,  known  as  the  Indian  territory.  It  possessed 
an  area  of  nearly  seventy  thousand '  square  miles,  and  com 
prised  rolling  prairies,  rich  river  land,  and  noble  forests.  Other 
Reservations  were  established  at  various  points  in  the  West 
and,  gradually,  most  of  the  Indian  tribes  were  exiled  to  these 
extensive  and  unwalled  prison-spots. 

But  governments  are  changeable  and  agents  are  human. 
Unlike  the  British  system  in  Canada,  which  makes  the  superin 
tendence  of  these  Indian  reservations  life  positions,  the  change 
of  parties  in  power  resulted,  in  the  United  States,  in  a  fre 
quent  change  of  agents.  The  men  occupying  this  official  and 
often  autocratic  position  in  too  many  instances  used  their 
offices  for  their  personal  profit  rather  than  for  that  of  their 
charges ;  the  Indians  again  and  again  protested  against  the 
treatment  accorded  them,  and  the  secret  of  many  of  the  Indian 
outbreaks  of  the  last  half-century  may  be  found  in  the  dissat- 


242  PUSHED   TO    THE    WALL. 

isfaction  of  the  nation's  "  wards  "  with  the  neglect  or  indif 
ference  with  which  their  necessities  were  met.  Again  and 
again  have  they  broken  their  bounds  and  this  bulky  and 
expensive  system  has  at  last  proved  itself  at  once  impracti 
cable  and  inexpedient. 

"  It  is  not  more  natural  for  acid  to  react  upon  alkali,"  says 
Dr.  Eggleston,  "  than  for  civilization  —  especially  a  half-civiliza 
tion  —  to  fall  out  with  savagery."  The  rapacity  of  the  border 
settlements,  the  envious  looks  which  men  cast  upon  the  goodly 
and  extensive  lands  given  up  to  the  despised  red-man  for 
hunting  and  roving  led  to  encroachments.  Little  by  little  the 
reservations  were  contracted,  tribes  were  removed  from  one 
section  to  another  and  the  ill-effects  of  "  dole  and  subsidy " 
grew  more  and  more  apparent. 

The  discovery  of  gold  and  the  vast  natural  wealth  that 
was  found  to  lie  in  what  were  originally  esteemed  waste  lands 
made  the  white  man  more  impatient  of  this  system  of  "  savage 
monopoly."  A  "  restless,  enterprising,  adventurous  and  rapidly 
thickening  white  population,"  as  Dr.  Ellis  characterizes  the 
American  pioneer  element,  would  not  be  kept  out  of  the 
reserved  lands.  Despite  the  efforts  of  government  to  pro 
tect  its  "wards  "  the  preeminence  of  possession  asserted  itself 
and  the  Indians  were  still  further  crowded  out  of  their  homes. 

"We  are  driven  back,"  said  an  old  warrior,  after  one  of 
these  periodical  dispossessings,  "  until  we  can  retreat  no 
further.  Our  hatchets  are  broken,  our  bows  are  snapped,  our 
fires  are  nearly  extinguished.  A  little  longer  and  the  white 
man  will  cease  to  persecute  us  — for  we  will  cease  to  exist." 

The  tribes  within  the  borders  of  the  United  States  now 
on  reservations  are  divided  substantially  as  follows :  In  Maine, 
there  are  410,  all  that  are  left  of  the  original  Penobscot  stock; 


THE   HOME  OF  THE   INDIAN, 


PUSHED    TO    THE    WALL.  245 

in  New  York,  4,963,  remnants  of  the  once  powerful  Iroquois 
confederacy;  in  North  Carolina,  3000,  of  the  Cherokee  nation. 
In  Florida  and  Indiana,  892  —  the  last  of  the  restless  Seminoles 
and  Miamis ;  in  Wisconsin,  8,006;  in  Michigan,  7,313;  in 
Minnesota,  6,038;  in  Iowa,  380  —  all  that  remains  of  Black 
Hawk's  once  warlike  race;  in  Kansas,  1,007;  'm  Nebraska, 
3,694;  in  Colorado,  978;  in  Nevada,  8,238;  in  Montana, 
12,904;  in  Wyoming,  1,800;  in  Utah,  2,698;  in  Idaho,  4,061; 
in  Washington,  10,289;  in  Oregon,  4,627;  in  Arizona,  19,468; 
in  Dakota,  30,271;  in  California,  11,506;  in  Texas,  290;  in 
New  Mexico,  2,824;  and  in  the  Indian  Territory  75,799. 

This  total  of  nearly  250,000  American  Indians  represents 
the  factors  in  the  perplexed  Indian  problem.  And  what  is  this 
problem?  Set  forth  plainly,  says  Mr.  J.  B.  Harrison,  one  of 
its  latest  and  most  experienced  students,  "  it  is  the  question 
how  the  Indian  shall  be  brought  to  a  condition  of  self-support, 
and  of  equal  rights  before  the  law,  in  which  they  will  no  longer 
require  the  special  protection  and  control  of  the  Government." 

To  this  complexion  has  it  come  at  last.  "  The  Indian  can 
no  longer  be  removed,"  says  another  recent  student  of  the 
problem,  "  he  must  make  his  stand  where  he  is." 

Inch  by  inch  he  has  been  crowded  back  from  the  heritage 
of  his  fathers  into  a  cramped  and  limited  area  in  which  the 
changed  condition  of  his  life  from  the  old  times  when  he 
was  a  hunter,  a  producer  and  a  free  man  is  fast  making  him 
a  vagrant  and  a  pauper. 

It  is  a  sad  commentary  on  civilization  that  it  has  but 
degraded  where  it  should  have  exalted.  The  Indian  has  been 
the  white  man's  foil  where  he  should  have  proved  his  friend. 
Christianity  failed  to  christianize  him  not  because  of  any  in 
herent  weaknes^  in  the  grandest  of  religious  faiths,  but  because 


246 


PUSHED    TO    THE    WALL. 


of  the  lack  of  real  Christianity  itself  in  the  exponents  of  that 
faith.  Appetite  which  should  have  been  cultivated  into  gentle 
living  was  used  to  make  him  a  brute ;  association  which  should 
have  uplifted  him  made  him  an  outcast  and  a  vagrant ;  states 
manship  which  should  have  constituted  him  the  peer  of  his 
white  brethren  has  alternately  persecuted  and  petted,  domi 
neered  over  and  de 
graded  him.  And  the 
race  that  took  from 
him  his  land  has  taken 
from  him  also  his  am 
bition,  his  manhood 
and  his  life. 

The  American  In 
dian  has  reason  to  be 
proud  of  his  race.  His 
has  been  a  record 
which  even  dead  civili- 
z  a  t  i  o  n  s  might  well 
have  envied.  Evolved 
from  savagery  through 
years  of  partial  prog 
ress,  he  became  as 
bold  a  warrior  as  ever 
Homer  sung,  as  elo 
quent  an  orator  as 
Greek  or  Roman  knew. 
His  barbaric  virtues  could  shame  the  sloth  and  license  of 
Tiberius'  day,  his  simple  manliness  could  put  to  blush  the  ser 
vile  manners  of  Justinian's  court.  His  rude  manufactures 
and  yet  ruder  art  have,  rude  as  they  were,  still  furnished 


TYPES  OF  A   u  FADING   RACE5' — INDIAN    PUPILS  AT 
HAMPTON    SCHOOL. 


PUSHED   TO    THE    WALL.  247 

suggestions  upon  which  modern  invention  can  scarcely  im 
prove,  and  his  governmental  policy  of  a  league  of  freemen 
is  that  toward  which  all  the  world  is  tending. 

His  manners  and  his  methods  will  compare  favorably  with 
those  of  any  barbaric  people.  With  no  more  brutality  than  the 
Huns  of  Attila,  no  greater  ferocity  than  the  sea-wolves  of  Olaf 
the  Viking,  and  no  deeper  strain  of  vindictiveness  than  the 
Goths  of  Alaric,  the  American  Indian  has  been  eliminated  as 
a  factor  in  a  fusing  civilization  where  these  bloodier  compeers 
have  been  accepted  as  the  bases  of  refined  nationalities. 

The  Indian  knew  no  law  but  that  of  simple  justice,  no 
dealings  other  than  those  of  simple  honesty,  no  order  more 
binding  than  that  of  simple  equality.  His  mind,  hampered 
by  the  superstition  that  always  inheres  in  an  out-of-door  race, 
was  still  no  greater  slave  to  the  supernatural  than  is  that  of  the 
agricultural  peasantry  of  any  land,  and  the  spell  of  the  scalp- 
lock,  or  the  magic  of  the  "  fetich  "  was  not  so  very  far  removed 
from  the  slavish  manipulation  of  the  myriad  gods  of  Rome, 
the  mystic  "  unicorn-horn "  of  the  bloody  Torqumada,  the 
dread  of  the  "  evil  eye  "  among  the  peasantry  of  England,  or 
the  fancied  "  overlooking  "  which  led  to  such  a  tragic  farce 
upon  the  slope  of  Witches'  Hill. 

All  this  may  appear  to  practical  folk  as  an  heroic  and  over 
drawn  estimate  of  a  very  ordinary  and  limited  intelligence. 
But  it  is  an  estimate  that  is  borne  out  by  facts,  and  is  one, 
moreover,  that  the  justice  of  the  conquerors  should  allow  to 
the  conquered.  The  shame  of  it  all  lies  in  the  knowledge  that 
a  civilization  which  might  have  moulded  has  only  marred,  and 
that  a  promising  barbarism  that  in  time  might  have  developed 
into  a  completed  native  civilization  has  been  smothered  and 
contemptuously  blotted  out  by  the  followers  of  a  Master  whose 


248  PUSHED    TO   THE    WALL. 

greatest  precept  was:  Love  one  another.     But  it  is  never  too 
late  to  be  just. 

"  The  popular  creed  on  the  subject,"  says  Mr.  J.  B.  Har 
rison,  in  a  recent  presentation  of  the  "  Latest  Studies  in  Indian 
Reservations,"  "  which  clothes  itself  with  the  solemn  sanctions 
and  imperial  authority  of  science,  is  that  the  Indian  is  doomed 
and  fated  to  fade  away,  by  reason  of  his  inherent  inferiority  to 
the  white  man.  Well,  let  him  fade.  Nobody  need  mourn  if 
any  race,  justly  treated,  and  with  reasonable  opportunity  for 
self-perpetuation,  comes  to  an  end  because  its  vitality  is  ex 
hausted  and  its  puny  and  vanishing  representatives  no  longer 
reproduce  their  kind.  When  a  race  perishes  thus  it  is  time 
for  it  to  go.  But  when  people  numbering  hundreds  of  thou 
sands  are  destroyed  on  their  own  soil  by  the  richest  and 
strongest  nation  under  the  sun  —  crushed  and  exterminated  by 
means  of  falsehood  and  theft,  of  mountainous  fraud  and  fero 
cious  murder,  I  do  not  call  that  fading  out.  It  is  altogether 
a  different  matter." 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

INDIAN    TYPES. 

"  I  WISH  to  say  emphatically,"  says  Gen 
eral  George  Crook  —  an  Indian  fighter  of 
valor  and  renown  but,  not  less,  a  just  and 
clear-headed  student  of  Indian  character  — 
"  that  the  American  Indian  is  the  intel 
lectual  peer  of  most,  if  not  all,  the  various 
nationalities  we  have  assimilated  to  our 
laws,  customs  and  language." 

"  Give  the  Indians  the  right  of  sending 
a  delegate  to  Congress,"  said  General  James 
Wadsworth  —  a  soldier,  a  statesman  and  a 
careful  observer  of  Indian  nature  fifty  years 
ago.  "  I  beg  you  not  to  be  startled,"  he 
continued,  in  reply  to  an  expression  of  dis 
sent  ;  "  there  are  many  Indian  chiefs  who 
would  not  disgrace  the  floor  of  Congress." 

Every  friend  of  the  Indian,  from  the  Clerigo  Las  Casas 
to  Era  Junipero,  "  H.  H."  and  Bishop  Hare  —  as,  through  the 
four  centuries  of  intercourse  between  the  white  race  and  the 
red,  the  still  unsettled  Indian  problem  has  been  studied  and 
experimented  upon  —  agrees  in  conceding  to  the  native  Ameri 
can  the  attributes  that  go  toward  the  making  of  a  manly  man. 

249 


25< 


INDIAN  TYPES. 


And  the  testimony  of  his  foes  is  not  less  emphatic.  De 
Soto,  prince  of  Indian  butchers,  found  among  the  chieftains 
of  the  Southern  tribes  foemen  worthy  of  his  steel,  warriors 
who,  despite  the  Spaniard's  coat  of  mail,  his  bloodhounds  and 
his  arms,  were  his  conqueror  and  his  scourge.  "  Thus  has 

terminated,"  wrote 
General  Sherman, 
after  the  conclu 
sion  of  the  Nez 
Perce  outbreak  of 
1877,  "  one  of  the 
most  extraordinary 
Indian  wars  of 
which  there  is  any 
record.  The  In 
dians  throughout 
displayed  a  cour 
age  and  skill  that 
elicited  universal 
praise ;  they  ab 
stained  from  scalp 
ing,  let  captive 
women  go  free,  did 
not  commit  indiscriminate  murder  of  peaceful  families,  and 
fought  with  almost  scientific  skill,  using  advance  and  rear 
guards,  skirmish  lines  and  field  fortifications." 

The  story  of  the  decline  and  fall  of  any  nation  is  full  of 
sad  interest.  The  decay  of  a  race,  even  though  a  stouter  and 
stronger  one  succeeds  it,  elicits  sympathy — as  failure  always 
should.  No  matter  how  barbaric,  no  matter  how  savage,  even, 
is  the  race  or  the  people  conquered,  its  attempts  as  well  as  its 


FRA   JUNIPERO    SERRO,  FRIEND   OF  THE  CALIFORNIA   INDIANS. 


INDIAN  TYPES.  251 

desires  toward  independence  and  self-preservation  develop 
resources  of  latent  patriotism  and  personal  ability.  There 
were  great  men  in  Rome's  decadence  as  well  as  in  her  days  of 
glory.  Scanderbeg,  the  Albanian,  has  made  the  death  of  his 
country  historic,  and  Kosciusko's  patriotic  endeavor  glorified 
the  fall  of  Poland. 

Civilization  does  not  hold  a  monopoly  of  all  life's  nobilities. 
There  have  been  patriots  and  heroes  in  all  ages  and  among  all 
peoples,  and  the  American  Indian  is  by  no  means  a  laggard  in 
the  ranks  of  heroism. 

"  From  Massachusetts  Bay  back  to  their  own  hunting 
grounds,"  said  Wendell  Phillips,  champion  of  the  world's 
oppressed  whatever  their  color  or  their  homeland,  "  every  few 
miles  is  written  down  in  imperishable  record  as  a  spot  where 
the  scanty,  scattered  tribes  made  a  stand  for  justice  and  their 
own  rights.  Neither  Greece,  nor  Germany,  nor  the  French, 
nor  the  Scotch,  can  show  a  prouder  record.  And  instead  of 
searing  it  over  with  infamy  and  illustrated  epithets  the  future 
will  recognize  it  as  a  glorious  record  of  a  race  that  never 
melted  out  and  never  died  away,  but  stood  up  manfully,  man  by 
man,  foot  by  foot,  and  fought  it  out  for  the  land  God  gave  him, 
against  the  world,  which  seemed  to  be  poured  out  over  him." 

Without  idealizing  the  red-man's  good  qualities  nor  over 
looking  his  bad  ones,  without  disputing  the  fact  that  civilization 
with  all  its  vices  is  preferable  to  barbarism  with  all  its  virtues, 
we  can  still  have  courtesy  and  courage  enough  to  concede  to 
the  American  Indian  very  much  of  that  inherent  nobility  that 
knows  no  distinctions  of  race  or  rank,  of  color  or  creed,  of 
mind  or  manners. 

We  need  no  mythical  Hiawatha,  no  fictitious  Uncas,  no 
imaginary  Pocahontas  to  prove  the  existence  of  real  and  vital 


252  INDIAN  TYPES. 

humanity  in  the  Indian  nature.  "  There  are,"  says  Mr.  Dunn, 
"  plenty  of  well-authenticated  instances  of  Indian  chivalry. 
The  romance  of  war  and  the  chase  has  always  been  theirs. 
If  you  want  the  romance  of  love,  a  thousand  elopements  in  the 
face  of  deadly  peril  will  supply  you  with  Lochinvars.  If  you 
want  the  romance  of  friendship,  you  may  find,  in  the  'com 
panion  warriors '  of  the  prairie  tribes,  rivals  for  Damon  and 
Pythias.  If  you  want  the  romance  of  grief,  take  that  mag 
nificent  Mandan,  Mah-to-ti-pa,  who  starved  himself  to  death 
because  of  the  ravages  of  small-pox  in  his  tribe,  or  Ha-won-je- 
tah,  the  Minneconjon  chief,  who  was  so  maddened  by  the  death 
of  his  son  that  he  swore  to  kill  the  first  living  thing  that 
crossed  his  path ;  armed  only  with  a  knife  he  attacked  a  buffalo 
bull,  and  perished  on  the  horns  of  the  furious  animal.  If  you 
seek  knight-errantry,  I  commend  you  to  the  young  Pawnee- 
Loup  brave,  Pe-ta-le-shar-ro,  who  at  the  risk  of  his  life  freed 
a  Comanche  girl  from  the  stake  and  returned  her  unharmed  to 
her  people.  If  you  desire  the  grander  chivalry  of  strength  of 
mind  and  nobility  of  soul,  I  will  pit  Chief  Joseph,  the  Nez 
Perce,  against  any  barbarian  that  ever  lived." 

"  Tell  your  countrymen  that  you  have  been  pursued  by 
Quigualtanqui  alone,"  said  the  intrepid  Chickasaw  chief  as  he 
drove  the  last  remnant  of  De  Soto's  defeated  invaders  down 
the  Mississippi  and  out  into  the  great  Gulf ;  "  if  he  had  been 
better  assisted  by  his  brother  warriors  not  one  of  you  would 
have  lived  to  tell  the  tale." 

As  this  fiery  Southern  chief  was  the  Agamemnon  of  his 
race  so,  too,  did  it  have  its  Regulus.  During  certain  border 
disturbances  in  the  early  part  of  the  present  century,  so  runs 
the  story,  the  British  soldiers  captured  a  hostile  Indian  against 
whom  they  laid  the  charge  of  murder  and  notified  him  that  he 


INDIAN  TYPES.  255 

was  to  be  shot  the  next  day.  He  made  no  plea  for  his  life,  but 
simply  asked  permission  to  say  good-by  to  his  family,  who  were 
encamped  with  his  tribe  a  few  miles  away.  He  promised  to 
return  by  sunrise  the  next  morning.  Permission  was  granted ; 
the  Indian  left  the  camp,  bade  his  family  adieu  and  promptly 
at  sunrise,  next  day,  returned  to  his  captors  who  with  the 
customary  border  magnanimity  led  him  out  and  shot  him. 

Nanuntenoo,  son  of  Miantonomah,  chief  of  the  Narragan- 
setts,  falling  captive  to  the  Plymouth  colonists  during  the 
bloody  time  of  King  Philip's  war,  was  tried  and  condemned  to 
death.  "  After  the  verdict,"  says  Mr.  Hollister,  "  his  life  was 
tendered  to  him  if  he  would  consent  to  make  peace  with  the 
English.  He  spurned  the  offer  with  the  bitterest  scorn,  and 
was  sentenced  to  be  shot.  When  the  result  of  the  trial  was 
made  known  to  him,  he  said  calmly :  '  Nanuntenoo  likes  it 
well.  He  will  die  before  his  heart  is  soft,  and  he  has  said  any 
thing  unworthy  of  himself.' ' 

"  My  son,"  said  the  dying  chief  of  the  Lower  Nez  Perces, 
as  he  took  the  hand  of  his  oldest  son,  "  my  body  is  returning 
to  my  mother  earth,  and  my  spirit  is  going  very  soon  to  see  the 
Great  Spirit  Chief.  When  I  am  gone,  think  of  your  country. 
You  are  the  chief  of  these  people.  They  look  to  you  to  guide 
them.  Always  remember  that  your  father  never  sold  his 
country.  You  must  stop  your  ears  whenever  you  are  asked  to 
sign  a  treaty  selling  your  home.  A  few  years  more,  and  white 
men  will  be  all  around  you.  They  have  their  eyes  on  this  land. 
My  son,  never  forget  my  dying  words.  This  country  holds 
your  father's  body.  Never  sell  the  bones  of  your  father  and 
your  mother."  And  because  this  loyal  son,  In-mut-too-yah-lat- 
yat  (whom  we  know  as  the  brave  Chief  Joseph,  the  Nez  Perce) 
sought  to  carry  out  his  father's  dying  injunction,  the  United 


256  INDIAN  TYPES. 

States  Government  waged  against  him  a  bitter  and  relentless 
war.  "  I  love  that  land  more  than  all  the  rest  of  the  world," 
said  Joseph.  "  A  man  who  would  not  love  his  father's  grave 
is  worse  than  a  wild  animal." 

No  doubt  the  disbeliever  in  Indian  virtue  could  cap  these 
positive  types  of  Indian  manliness  with  certain  and  well  as 
sured  negative  ones.  No  doubt  the  Indian  of  to-day  is  lazy 
and  vicious,  drunken  and  dirty,  crafty  and  deceitful,  and  no 
doubt,  even  in  his  palmiest  days  of  freedom  and  of  power  the 
Indian  himself  nurtured  the  seeds  of  his  downfall  and  decline. 
But  the  like  comparisons  could  be  made  in  every  land  and 
with  every  race.  Ephialtes  and  Leonidas,  Judas  and  John, 
Arnold  and  Washington  are  but  types  of  mankind  the  world 
over,  and  the  soil  of  America  has  reared  alike  the  ignoble 
barbarian  and  the  "  noble  red-man "  —  this  last  by  no  means 
a  fiction  of  the  romancer  or  the  creation  of  the  visionary  poet. 

Professor  Huxley  has  said  that  if  he  was  compelled  to 
choose  between  life  in  the  worst  quarter  of  a  great  city  and 
life  with  the  most  barbarous  tribe  known  to  exist,  he  would 
choose  the  latter  without  hesitation.  The  savage  has,  at  least, 
he  declares,  the  sunlight,  fresh  air  and  freedom  of  movement. 

Contact,  after  all,  is  one  of  the  chief  tests  of  character. 
Civilization  conquered  America  rather  by  force  of  numbers 
than  by  force  of  precept,  and  where  the  growth  of  settlement 
was  slow,  as  on  the  farthest  borders,  it  was  the  savage  rather 
than  the  frontiersman  who  was  the  dominating  influence. 

"  At  first,"  says  Mr.  Parkman,  "  great  hopes  were  enter 
tained  that,  by  the  mingling  of  French  and  Indians,  the  latter 
would  be  won  over  to  civilization  and  the  Church ;  but  the 
effect  was  precisely  the  reverse ;  for,  as  Charlevoix  observes, 
the  savages  did  not  become  French,  but  the  French  became 


INDIAN  TYPES. 


259 


savages.  The  renegade  of  civilization  caught  the  habits  and 
imbibed  the  prejudices  of  his  chosen  associates.  He  loved  to 
decorate  his  long  hair  with  eagle  feathers,  to  make  his  face 
hideous  with  vermilion, 
ochre,  and  soot,  and  to  adorn 
his  greasy  hunting  frock 
with  horsehair  fringes.  He 
lounged  on  a  bearskin  while 
his  squaw  boiled  his  venison 
and  lighted  his  pipe.  In 
hunting,  in  dancing,  in  sing 
ing,  in  taking  a  scalp,  he 
rivalled  the  genuine  Indian." 

Vitiated  by  centuries  of 
temptation,  of  evil  influences 
and  of  contact  with  the 
worst  phases  of  a  conquer 
ing  civilization  the  Indian 
blood  no  longer  runs  pure 
and  strong.  But  it  is  safe 
to  assert  that  the  unbridled 
ferocity  which  has  so  long 
been  a  synonym  of  Indian 
warfare  is  an  outgrowth  of 
the  later  ages  of  the  Indian 
race,  and  it  is  equally  true 
that  the  less  pure  the  Indian 
blood  the  more  brutal  and 
savage  was  the  Indian  nature. 

The  ferocity  of  the  Indian  wars  of  the  West  and  Southwest 
has  always  been  aggravated  when  Spanish,  Mexican  or  negro 


THE    RENEGADE   OF   CIVILIZATION. 


260  INDIAN  TYPES. 

blood  has  run  in  the  veins  of  the  "  hostiles."  The  renegade 
of  civilization  and  the  brutal  and  parasitical  half-breed  were 
more  fruitful  of  barbarities  and  less  capable  of  humanity 
than  were  the  Indians  whom  they  aroused  and  instigated.  It 
was  Bi-aus-wah  the  Ojibway  who  put  an  end  by  influence  and 
treaty  to  the  torture  of  captives  among  the  Northwestern 
tribes  ;  it  was  Te-cum-the  the  Shawanoe  who  treated  his  prison 
ers  with  uniform  kindness  and  denounced  torture  at  the  stake 
as  unbecoming  the  character  of  a  warrior  and  a  man ;  it  was 
Spotted  Tail  the  Sioux  (Sin-ta-gal-les-ca),  whose  kindness  and 
affection  for  the  wife  whom  he  had  won  by  a  romantic  bravery 
not  exceeded  by  the  knights  of  Arthur's  day,  were  noted 
throughout  his  tribe,  and  it  was  Red  Jacket  the  Seneca  \vho 
though  his  whole  life  was  devoted  to  securing  and  maintain 
ing  the  independence  of  his  race,  despised  war  and  abhorred 
bloodshed. 

While  the  study  of  a  people  is  most  satisfactorily  pursued 
by  the  study  and  observation  of  the  people  themselves,  the 
personal  characteristics  or  public  acts  of  those  who  have  been 
most  prominent  in  the  history  of  such  a  people  may  make  them 
valuable  as  types  of  the  race  or  the  time  to  which  they  belong. 
Pericles  and  Elizabeth,  as  they  have  given  their  names  to  the 
ages  in  which  they  lived,  are  regarded  as  representative  of 
their  times  quite  as  much  as  leaders  in  them.  And  Indian 
character,  from  the  days  of  the  "Welcome,  Englishmen!"  of 
Samoset  the  Abneki,  to  those  of  Red  Cloud  and  of  Geronimo, 
of  the  Lava  Beds  and  of  Hampton  School,  has  expressed  itself 
in  the  lives  of  certain  men  and  women  who  may  be  regarded 
as  typical  and  representative. 

Massasoit  and  Metacomet,  father  and  son,  are  typical 
Americans  of  the  early  days.  Massasoit  embodied  that  spirit 


POCAHONTAS   AND    HER    SON,   THOMAS    ROLFE. 
(From  the  original  painting  in  Heacham  Hall,  England,  the  home  of  the  Rolf e  family.} 


INDIAN  TYPES.  263 

of  hospitality,  of  respect  for  higher  intelligence  and  of  the 
desire  for  peace  that  marked  the  first  contact  of  American 
and  European.  "  Nun  wermasu  sagimus!  Nun  wermasu  sagi- 
mus!  My  loving  sachem ;  my  loving  sachem,"  said  Hobba- 
mok  the  Wampanoag  to  Winslow  the  Puritan,  as  he  told  of  his 
loved  chieftain's  illness.  "  Many  have  I  known,  but  never  any 
like  thee."  And  Mr.  Fessenden,  in  his  history  of  the  town  of 
Warren,  says :  "  In  all  the  memorials  which  have  come  down  to 
us,  Massasoit's  character  stands  above  reproach.  No  one  has 
ever  charged  him  with  evil."  Indeed,  from  the  good  chiefs 
first  overture  of  friendship  to  the  Pilgrims  to  the  time  of  his 
death,  so  Mr.  Fessenden  declares,  Massasoit  was  "  not  only 
their  uniform  friend,  but  their  protector  at  times  when  his  pro 
tection  was  equivalent  to  their  preservation."  He  was  "  no 
liar,"  said  Hobbamok ;  "  not  bloody  or  cruel ;  in  anger  and 
passion  he  was  soon  reclaimed ;  easy  to  be  reconciled  toward 
such  as  had  offended  him ;  truly  loving  where  he  loved,  he 
governed  his  tribesmen  better  with  few  strokes  than  others  did 
with  many."  Of  similar  strain  was  Anilco  the  Chickasaw; 
and  Tomo-chi-chi  the  Cherokee,  the  friend  of  Oglethorpe  and 
the  preventer  of  hostilities  between  the  red-man  and  the  white  in 
the  early  days  of  Georgia ;  such  was  Granganimeo  of  Ohanok 
(Roanoke),  welcomer  and  friend  to  Grenville  and  to  Lane.  Of 
the  same  kindly  nature,  too,  were  the  courteous  and  betrayed 
squaw  sachem,  or  "  princess  "  of  Cofitachiqui  among  the  tribes 
on  the  Altamaha,  and  that  gentle  daughter  of  Ucita,  sachem  of 
Harrihigua,  whose  pity  and  compassion  saved  Juan  Ortiz 
from  the  sacrificial  fire,  and  antedated  by  almost  a  century  the 
now  familiar  romance  of  Pocahontas  and  Captain  John  Smith. 
As  to  that  romance  itself,  it  is  one  of  those  debatable  stories 
that,  lacking  absolute  proof,  are  relegated  by  the  doubters  to 


264  INDIAN  TYPES. 

the  domain  of  myths  or  are  believed  in,  unhesitatingly,  by  the 
lovers  of  sentiment.  It  is  wisest  perhaps  to  agree  with  Pro 
fessor  Arber,  who  has  carefully  looked  into  the  details  of  the 
story,  and  admit  that  "  to  deny  the  truth  of  the  Pocahontas 
incident  is  to  create  more  difficulties  than  are  involved  in  its 
acceptance." 

But  whether  or  not  the  "  king's  dearest  daughter  "  —  Ma-ta- 
oka,  the  Algonquin  maiden,  sometimes  called  Pocahontas — did 
interpose  her  head  between  that  of  the  doughty  little  Vir 
ginia  Captain  and  the  club  of  her  kinsman  there  is  no  reason 
to  doubt  her  friendship  toward  the  white  colonists  on  her  tribal 
lands.  "  Shee,  next  under  God,"  says  the  old  chronicle,  "was 
still  the  instrument  to  preserve  this  Colonie  from  death,  famine, 
and  utter  confusion."  Her  frequent  visits  of  friendship  and  of 
peace,  her  vigilant  guardianship  over  her  white  friends  even 
when  her  barbaric,  but  shrewd  and  clear-headed  old  father  saw 
that  their  destruction  was  his  only  safe  policy,  and  her  final 
marriage  to  the  "  noble,  simple  and  upright  Master  John  Rolfe  " 
(as  the  chronicle  sees  fit  to  call  her  rather  fussy  and  self-right 
eous  English  husband)  are  sufficiently  authenticated  to  place 
this  dusky  young  maiden  of  the  Virginia  woods  as  "  the  bright 
consummate  flower  "  of  that  early  Indian  hospitality  and  courtesy 
of  which  good  old  Massasoit  was  the  manly  type. 

The  fiery  Metacomet,  known  to  us  as  "  King  Philip,"  is  a 
fitting  type  of  that  first  uncertain,  unreasoning  and  startled 
hostility  that  everywhere  followed  the  unwise  progress  of 
European  occupation.  A  patriot  and  a  partisan  Philip's  states 
manship  has  been  as  largely  overrated  as  his  nature  has  been 
maligned.  Ignorant  of  the  white  man's  reserve  powers,  care 
less  as  to  his  aggressive  and,  from  an  Indian  standard,  his 
meaningless  religion,  Philip  of  Pokanoket  gradually  awoke  to 


PONTIAC,   CHIEFTAIN    OF   THE   OTTAWAS. 


INDIAN  TYPES.  207 

the  fact  that  the  growth  of  the  white  man's  power  was  a 
menace  and  a  bar  to  Indian  prosperity.  With  none  of  the 
traits  of  leadership  that  marked  the  Ottawa  chieftain,  Pontiac, 
and  with  little  of  the  ability  in  statecraft  that  appear  in  the 
career  of  Red  Jacket  the  Seneca,  Philip  could  not  command  the 
storm  he  raised,  and  the  outbreak  that  he  hoped  to  see  grow 
into  a  widespread  and  successful  revolt  against  European  aggres 
sion  found  only  a  spasmodic  and  nerveless  success.  The  New 
England  Indians,  tributaries  of  the  Western  Iroquois,  had 
neither  the  wisdom  to  confederate,  nor  the  independence  to 
resist.  Philip's  unsupported  conspiracy  fell  because  of  its 
inherent  weakness,  and  only  the  personal  bravery  of  the 
valiant  and  patriotic  chief  gave  it  form  or  force.  Philip  of 
Pokanoket  is  the  American  Rob  Roy;  his  personal  bravery 
and  his  pride  of  blood  were  the  only  things  to  lighten  a  hope 
less  cause,  while  his  unconquerable  opposition  to  tyranny 
seemed  only  increased  by  misfortune,  and  ended  only  with  death. 
"  Defeated,  but  not  dismayed  —  crushed  to  the  earth,  but  not 
humiliated,"  so  says  one  of  his  biographers,  "  he  seemed  to 
grow  more  haughty  beneath  disaster,  and  to  receive  a  fierce 
satisfaction  in  draining  the  last  dregs  of  bitterness."  The  son 
of  Massasoit  died  a  victim  to  the  false  security  which  his  father 
had  too  unquestioningly  fostered,  and  the  certain  end  of  which 
he  alone  of  all  his  tribesmen  foresaw  and  vainly  struggled 
against. 

The  century  that  followed  his  downfall,  however,  produced 
many  acceptors  of  his  theory  and  many  imitators  of  his 
methods.  The  growth  of  border  settlements  was  everywhere 
marked  by  the  twang  of  the  bowstring  and  the  gleam  of  the 
tomahawk,  as  in  their  own  barbaric  fashion  the  earliest  Amer 
ican  patriots  sought  to  defend  their  home-land  from  invaders 


268  INDIAN  TYPES. 

and  usurpers.  And  the  outcome  of  that  century  of  bloody  pro 
test  was  the  typical  red-man  of  the  new  order  of  things  —  the 
apostle  of  extermination,  Pontiac  the  chieftain  of  the  Ottawas. 
A  fierce  and  relentless  hater  of  the  white  man,  but  a  statesman 
and  a  general  of  no  mean  ability,  Pontiac  united  with  excep 
tional  mental  qualities  the  fearlessness  of  the  warrior  and  the 
craftiness  of  the  politician.  "  Courage,  resolution,  wisdom, 
address  and  eloquence,"  says  Mr.  Parkman,  "  are,  among  the 
Indians,  sure  passports  to  distinction.  With  all  these  Pontiac 
was  preeminently  endowed,  and  it  was  chiefly  to  them,  urged  to 
their  highest  activity  by  a  vehement  ambition,  that  he  owed  his 
greatness.  The  American  forest  never  produced  a  man  more 
shrewd,  politic,  and  ambitious." 

No  one  Indian  in  all  the  history  of  the  native  American  race 
ever  possessed  so  much  personal  power  and  mastership  as  did 
Pontiac.  The  intolerance  of  discipline  and  the  love  of  absolute 
independence  that  are  so  pronounced  in  Indian  nature  render 
such  concentrated  direction  next  to  impossible,  and  it  is  a  proof 
at  once  of  Pontiac's  ability  and  of  his  commanding  energy 
that  he  was  able  to  unite  hostile  and  rival  tribes  in  a  bond  of 
war  that  extended  from  Lake  Erie  to  the  farthest  shores  of 
Superior  —  "a  plot  such  as  was  never  before  nor  since  conceived 
or  executed  by  a  North  American  Indian."  Pontiac  the 
Ottawa  marks  the  highest  point  of  Indian  ability,  and  his 
defeat  was  the  deathblow  to  Indian  supremacy,  as  it  was  also 
the  severest  wound  to  Indian  manliness  and  patriotism. 

Tha-yen-da-ne-gea  ("the  brant"),  most  widely  known  under 
his  anglicized  name  of  Joseph  Brant,  was  a  remarkable  type  of 
that  transitory  stage  of  progress  in  which  intellect  struggles 
with  barbarism,  and  loyalty  with  pride.  Born  a  full-blooded 
Mohawk  —  the  fiercest  of  the  Iroquois  race  —  he  had  received 


TE-CUM-THE,   CHIEF    OF   THE    SHAWANOE. 


INDIAN  TYPES.  271 

an  excellent  English  education,  had  embraced  Christianity  and 
adopted  the  manner  and  customs  of  civilization.  Bound  thus 
to  the  English  by  ties  of  affection  and  long  association,  reared 
in  the  knowledge  that  for  over  a  century  the  English  king 
and  the  tribesmen  of  the  Six  Nations  had  been  allies  and 
friends,  the  clannishness  of  his  Indian  nature  made  him  an 
ardent  loyalist  when  colonists  and  king  fell  out.  What  has 
been  judged  his  treachery  was  in  reality  his  barbaric  faith  in 
kinship  and  allegiance,  and  the  ferocity  that  has  been  laid 
to  his  charge  when  once  he  had  put  on  the  war-paint  and 
lifted  the  tomahawk  was  but  the  self-assertion  of  the  barbaric 
nature  that  education  could  not  eradicate  nor  Christianity 
modify.  Regarded  from  the  Indian's  standpoint  Tha-yen-da- 
ne-gea  the  Mohawk  was  not  "  the  brute  and  monster "  that 
local  orators  and  biased  historians  have  termed  him,  but  a  cool, 
sagacious  and  able  warrior,  and  a  loyal  and  patriotic  ally  of  the 
government  that  had  helped  and  honored  him. 

Te-cum-the  (or  Tecumseh)  the  Shawanoe  was  one  of  the 
most  notable  of  the  students  and  imitators  of  the  greater  Pon- 
tiac.  Unlike  Pontiac,  however,  his  sagacity  was  free  from  sav 
agery  and  his  fearlessness  was  tempered  by  humanity.  With 
less  genius  and  less  personal  magnetism  than  Pontiac  he  was 
fully  as  patriotic  and  even  more  far-seeing  than  the  Ottawa 
chieftain,  while  his  love  for  the  land  of  his  people  amounted 
to  a  passion  that  absorbed  all  other  considerations.  Opposed 
to  warfare,  and  honoring  the  intellectual  triumphs  of  civiliza 
tion,  with  no  complaint  against  the  white  men  except  for  their 
aggressive  and  ceaseless  absorption  of  the  Indian's  land,  faith 
ful  where  he  pledged  his  faith,  humane  and  compassionate, 
forgiving  even  in  the  face  of  bitterest  provocation,  Te-cum-the 
the  Shawanoe  had  still  "  the  genius  to  conceive  and  the  per- 


272  INDIAN  TYPES. 

severance  to  attempt "  the  most  extended  scheme  of  union 
against  the  white  race  ever  attempted  in  America  —  the  con 
spiracy  of  Pontiac  alone  excepted. 

Red  Jacket  the  Seneca  —  known  first  as  O-te-ti-ani  ("  Always 
Ready"),  and  after  his  rise  to  chieftainship  as  Sa-go-ye-wat-ha 
("the  Keeper  Awake  "),  is  recognized  as  the  typical  Indian  states 
man  of  the  era  of  transition.  Never  a  warrior,  as  were  Philip 
and  Pontiac  and  Black  Hawk,  Red  Jacket  was  a  patriotic 
politician  in  the  best  sense  of  that  questionable  designation. 
His  eloquence  was  remarkable,  and  as  it  gained  him  fame 
and  ascendency  in  his  younger  days,  it  kept  him  the  foremost 
man  among  the  Iroquois  until  his  death.  "A  warrior!"  he 
exclaimed,  when  some  one  spoke  of  him  as  such,  "  I  am  no 
warrior.  I  am  an  orator.  I  was  born  an  orator!"  Utterly 
repudiating  all  the  arts  and  advantages  of  civilization  he  lived 
and  died  a  true  barbarian,  disdaining  alike  the  religion  and 
the  language  of  his  white  foemen  and  spending  his  whole  life 
in  "  vain  endeavors  to  preserve  the  independence  of  his  tribe 
and  in  active  opposition  as  well  to  the  plans  of  civilization 
proposed  by  the  beneficent  as  to  the  attempts  at  encroachment 
on  the  part  of  the  mercenary." 

Black  Hawk,  or  Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiah,  the  warlike  chief 
of  the  Sacs,  or  Sauks,  was  one  of  the  last  of  the  warriors  of 
what  might  be  called  the  earlier  Indian  school.  As  fiery  as 
Philip  of  Pokonoket  and  as  ambitious  as  Pontiac,  he  had, 
however,  neither  the  restless  energy  of  the  one  nor  the  masterly 
ability  of  the  other.  Ranked  among  the  braves  of  his  tribe 
when  but  a  boy  of  fifteen,  he  declared  himself  when  scarce 
twenty-one  chief  of  the  Sac  nation,  and,  starting  upon  a  career 
of  conquest,  in  less  than  five  years  he  subdued  and  made 
tributaries  all  the  neighboring  tribes.  The  outrageous  and 


SA-GO-YE-WAT-HA  THE   SENECA.       (RED  JACKET.) 


INDIAN  TYPES. 


275 


lawless  actions  of  the  frontiersmen  made  him  an  ardent  hater 
of  the  white  men  and  their  inveterate  and  relentless  foeman. 
Fully  recognizing  the  hopelessness  of  resistance,  he  yet  man 
fully  battled  against  tyranny  and  oppression  and  proved  himself 
as  true  a  patriot  as  Scanderbeg  or  Winkelried  or  any  historic 
leader  of  a  forlorn  hope.  "  We  did  not  expect  to  conquer  the 
whites,"  he  said.  "  No,  they  have  too  many  houses,  too  many 
men.  I  took  up  the  tomahawk,  for  my  part,  to  revenge  injuries 
which  my  people  could  no  longer  endure.  Had  I  borne  them 
longer  without  striking,  my  people  would  have  said  :  *  Black 
Hawk  is  a  woman ;  he  is  too  old  to  be  a  chief ;  he  is  no  Sauk.' " 
Asseola,  the  Scotch  half-breed,  wrongfully  called  Osceola,* 
may  be  regarded  as  a  fitting  representative  of  the  un-Indian 
qualities  which  have  so  often  marked  the  mingling  of  the  blood 
of  such  diverse  races  as  the  red  and  the  white.  A  Seminole  who 
was  no  Seminole  —  his  father  being  a  Scotch  trader  and  his 
mother  a  squaw  of  the  Creeks  —  he  played  from  the  outset  the 
part  of  a  demagogue.  As  it  suited  his  purpose,  he  favored 
alternately  the  white  man  and  the  red,  and  with  a  cunning 
that  showed  both  the  shrewdness  of  the  Scotchman  and  the 
craft  of  the  Indian,  he  added  treachery  to  duplicity,  broke  alike 
his  pledges  and  his  faith,  and,  inciting  the  rabble  of  the  Florida 
tribes  against  their  own  chieftains  as  well  as  the  United  States 
officials,  he  ran  a  career  of  boldness,  insolence,  ferocity  and  crime 
that  brought  untold  suffering  upon  the  misguided  people  who 
followed  his  feather;  being  neither  Indian  nor  white  man,  he 
used  both  sides  to  serve  his  own  purposes  and  to  gratify  his 
personal  ambitions.  Asseola  is  as  far  removed  from  Philip, 

*  Asseola.  signifies  a  plentiful  partaker  of  the  black  drink.  Osceola  means  the  rising  sun.  Romance,  as  it  has 
ascribed  to  the  mixed  Scotch-Creek  leader  abilities  he  did  not  possess,  has  also  adopted  as  typical  of  his  character 
the  name  of  Osceola ;  his  real  characteristic  seems  instead  to  have  been  the  spirit  of  unbridled  license  represented 
by  the  real  name  Asseola. 


276  INDIAN  TYPES. 

Pontiac  and  Tecumthe  as  was  Marlborough  from  Wellington, 
or  Lee  from  Washington. 

There  are  still  other  types  of  Indian  character  that  might 
supplement  the  more  prominent  ones  here  portrayed  as  repre 
sentatives  of  their  race  in  its  different  stages  of  contact  with 
white  civilization. 

Such  was  Chickataubut  the  Massachusett,  and  Mianto- 
nomah  the  Narragansett,  friend  and  foeman  of  the  early  settlers 
of  Boston ;  Actahachi,  the  gigantic  chieftain  of  the  Creeks 
who  led  the  Indian  attack  against  De  Soto  in  the  bloody  battle 
of  Mauvila ;  Wa-bun-so-na-cook,  erroneously  called  Pow-ha-tan, 
head  chief  of  the  confederated  tribes  of  Virginia  ;  and  Weta- 
moo,  "  squaw  sachem "  of  the  Narragansetts  at  the  time  of 
Philip's  bloody  outbreak.  Such,  too,  was  Katonah  the  politic 
sagamore  of  the  Westchester  Indians,  and  Oganasdoda  the 
Cherokee,  who  sought  to  lead  his  tribesmen  into  the  white 
man's  civilization.  Such  was  Mah-to-ton-ka  the  Ogillalah,  the 
tyrant  of  his  tribe  ;  Ke-o-kuk,  ("  the  watchful  Fox,")  rival  and 
enemy  of  Black  Hawk ;  and  Corn-planter  the  crafty  Iroquois 
statesman.  Such  was  the  eloquent  "  war  woman  of  Chata," 
among  the  Cherokees  ;  Sequoyah,  the  painstaking  inventor  of 
the  Cherokee  alphabet ;  and  Lau-le-wa-si-kan,  the  "  prophet," 
brother  and  helper  of  Tecumthe  ;  and  such,  later,  were  Red 
Cloud  and  Spotted  Tail,  rival  chiefs  of  the  warlike  Sioux,  Sit 
ting  Bull  the  half-breed  Oncpapa,  Captain  Jack,  or  Kient-poos 
the  Modoc,  Joseph  the  Nez  Perce  patriot  and  Geronimo  the 
relentless  Apache. 

These  and  many  others  of  equal  prominence  represent 
every  phase  and  every  side  of  Indian  character  —  the  savage, 
the  barbaric,  the  progressive.  For  there  are  Indians,  and 
Indians  ;  and  there  is  as  much  difference,  as  Mr.  Dunn  well 


MA-KA-TAI-ME-SHE-KIA-KIAH   THE   SAUK.      (BLACK   HAWK.) 


INDIAN  TYPES. 


279 


says, "  between  a  Pueblo  and  an  Apache,  or  a  Nez  Perce  and  an 
Arapahoe,  as  there  is  between  a  Broadway  merchant  and  a 
Bowery  rough." 

But,  for  all  practical  purposes  of  illustration  and  of  type, 
the  Indian  leaders  whose  characters  have  been  outlined  in  this 
chapter  may  stand 
as  representatives  of 
their  race  and  their 
times.  They  will 
stand,  also,  as  ample 
assurance  that  the 
native  American 
whose  blood  ran  pure 
and  who  sought  to 
be  loyal  to  the  tra 
ditions  of  his  people 
and  the  integrity  of 
his  home-land,  was 
as  worthy  the  name 
of  patriot  as  have  ever  been  those  of  more  civilized  and  there 
fore  of  more  favored  lands  whose  names  have  emblazoned  the 
pages  of  history  and  led  the  rolls  of  heroism. 


SPOTTED   TAIL    WITH    HIS    WIFE   AND    DAUGHTER. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

THE  INDIAN'S  OUTLOOK. 

IT  is  not  the  design 
nor  the  purpose  of  this 
volume  to  enter  into  any 
discussion  of  the  Indian 
problem.  It  is  offered 
merely  as  a  contribution 
toward  a  clearer  under 
standing  of  the  character  of  the 
original  possessors  of  American  soil 
and  seeks  to  place  in  consecutive 
and  logical  form  the  story  of  the 
American  Indian.  The  truth  of  his 
tory  and  the  dictates  of  simple 
justice  demand  that  Americans  of 
to-day  should  have  something  more 
than  a  misty  or  distorted  knowledge  of  a  people  who  have  been 
at  once  the  victims  and  the  tools  of  a  conquering  civilization. 

The  Indian  problem  has  existed  since  the  very  first  days 
of  discovery  and  exploration.  Priest  and  soldier,  missionary 
and  explorer,  colonist  and  pioneer,  king  and  counselor,  monar 
chist  and  republican,  philanthropist  and  politician,  reformer 

and  statesman,  friend   and  foe    have    alike   grappled  with   its 

280 


THE  INDIAN'S   OUTLOOK. 


281 


intricacies,  suggested  plans   of  treatment  and  settlement,  and 
have  all  alike  failed  of  satisfactory  results. 

Meantime  the  Indian,  though  he  knew  it  not,  has  himself 
been  working  out  his  problem  in  an  involuntary  and  round 
about  way.  Drifting 
this  way  and  that,  as 
the  tide  of  immigra 
tion  has  now  floated 
and  now  stranded  it, 
the  frail  canoe  of  bar 
barism  has  but  illy  sus 
tained  the  shocks  of 
the  armored  vessel  of 
civilization.  The  In 
dian  paddle  has  been 
able  to  maintain  only 
a  weak  and  gradually 
lessening  struggle 
against  the  incoming 
billows  of  white  settle 
ment,  and  the  Indian, 
at  last,  after  many  a 
manly  struggle  and 
many  a  cruel  rebuff 
has  allowed  his  canoe 
to  drift  with  the  tide, 
while  he  from  a  patriot 
and  a  protestant  has  become  both  a  fatalist  and  a  pensionary. 

His  story  is,  indeed,  but  that  of  similar  subject  races  who 
have  been  antagonized  and  absorbed  by  the  resistless  and 
more  vigorous  civilizations  that  have  conquered  them. 


HIS   STORY    IS   A   SIMPLE  ONE." 


282  THE  INDIAN'S   OUTLOOK. 

The  story  is  a  simple  one.  Evolved  from  brutish  savagery 
through  stages  of  slow  and  fluctuating  development  the  native 
Americans  first  essayed  a  pseudo-civilization  that  fell  because 
of  its  own  inherent  unworthiness.  Relapsing  into  savagery 
—  though  of  a  higher  grade  than  that  of  their  primitive 
ancestors  —  these  native  Americans  emerged  again,  as  the  self- 
raised  waves  of  progress  floated  them  along,  into  a  diverse  but 
more  coherent  form  of  barbarism,  which  contained  within  itself 
the  elements  but  not  the  energies  of  a  possible  civilization. 

Brought  into  contact  with  a  higher  and  hitherto  unsuspected 
intelligence,  the  red  natives  of  America  struggled  vainly  against 
the  new  order  of  things  in  which  the  mind  rather  than  the 
senses  was  the  dominating  force.  Through  years  of  protest, 
aggression  and  defiance  they  strove  for  their  inherited  per 
sonality  ;  but  recognizing  finally  the  uselessness  of  ceaseless 
endeavor  they  dropped  their  weapons  as  they  sunk  their  manly 
pride,  and  fell  at  last  into  a  condition  of  vassalage,  pupilage, 
and  involuntary  concession,  in  which  it  became  the  duty  of  the 
civilization  that  had  forced  them  there  to  protect,  educate  and 
develop  them. 

How  imperfectly  civilization  met  this  duty  is  but  too  well 
known.  Religion  wrongly  directed,  power  selfishly  used,  policy 
totally  misapplied  have  wrought  their  logical  results,  and  the 
white  race  must  now  acknowledge  its  failure  where  it  might 
have  achieved  success.  "  Had  every  white  inhabitant  who  sat 
himself  down  by  the  side  of  an  Indian  been  kind  and  generous," 
says  a  recent  writer,  "  had  he  discovered  less  of  avarice,  and 
not  taken  pains  to  make  himself  offensive  by  his  unmistakable 
haughtiness,  few  cases  of  contention  would  have  arisen." 

But  human  nature,  in  civilization  quite  as  much  as  in  bar 
barism,  is  weak,  selfish  and  improvident,  and  the  first  white 


THE  INDIAN'S   OUTLOOK. 


283 


settlers  did  precisely  what  they  should  not  have  done.  Their 
successors  followed  in  their  footsteps  until  now  under  the  con 
fused  and  loosely-framed  laws  of  the  conquerors  of  his  home 
land  the  Indian  is  more  of  an  anomaly  than  ever.  Indeed,  as 
Mr.  Byam  very  concisely  states  it,  "  The  Indian  is  not  a  citizen 
and  he  is  not  a  foreigner.  He  is  a  nondescript.  At  different 
periods  he  has  received 
different  designations. 
Years  ago  he  was  a 
'domestic  subject'; 
then,  4  a  perpetual  in 
habitant  with  diminu 
tive  rights ';  now  he  is 
the  Government's 
'ward.'  This  latter," 
adds  Mr.  Byam,  "is 
manifestly  a  misno 
mer,  for  the  '  ward ', 
in  this  case,  in  order 
to  bring  a  suit  against 
his  guardian,  must  first 
obtain  his  guardian's 
permission. 

It  is  this  vague  and  indefinable  position  before  the  law 
that  has  been,  from  the  beginning,  the  main  source  of  trouble 
with  the  Indians." 

That  the  "protecting"  government  has  been  largely  respon 
sible  for  this  false  position  —  ignorantly,  perhaps,  but  still 
responsible  —  the  official  records  of  the  Indian  Bureau  and  the 
contradictory  legislation  of  the  National  Congress  afford  ample 
proof.  This  latter  has  given  us  the  treaty  system,  the  separate 


CONTACT  WITH  A  HIGHER  INTELLIGENCE. 


284  THE   INDIAN'S     OUTLOOK. 

sovereignty  system,  the  reservation  system,  the  agency  system, 
the  religious  espionage  system,  the  philanthropic  manipulation 
system,  the  military  system,  the  political  patronage  system,  the 
ration  and  pensionary  system,  and  countless  other  systems  which 

—  fortunately  for  the    Indian  —  have  failed   of  Congressional 
sanction.     And  still  the  question  is  unsolved. 

Said  a  clever  young  Indian  woman  —  Insh-ta  The-am-ba, 
known  to  us  as  "  Bright  Eyes  "  —  "  the  white  people  have  tried 
to  solve  the  Indian  question  by  commencing  with  the  proposi 
tion  that  the  Indian  is  different  from  all  other  human  beings. 
Allow  an  Indian,''  she  adds,  "  to  suggest  that  the  solution  of 
this  vexed  question  is  citizenship." 

To  this  conclusion,  too,  all  thoughtful  students  of  the  ques 
tion  are  rapidly  tending.  The  Indian  problem  as  it  stands 
to-day  is  of  our  own  making.  Its  solution  must  also  be  our 
own.  But  the  Indian  himself — the  chief  factor  in  the  problem 

—  must  be  made  the  means  by  which  a  final  solution  is  reached. 
Education  and  severalty  seem  to  be  the  only  paths  which  lead 
to  Indian  manhood. 

The  first  of  these  is  already  being  successfully  traversed. 
The  possibility,  of  which  the  one  Indian  alumnus  of  Harvard, 
two  hundred  years  ago  —  "  Caleb  Cheeshabteaumuck,  Indus  "  — 
was  the  prophecy,  is  fast  becoming  the  reality,  and  Hampton  and 
Carlisle,  Salem  and  Albuquerque,  Chilocco  and  Genoa,  Law 
rence  and  Philadelphia,  and  the  other  points  at  which  have 
been  organized  advanced  schools  for  the  industrial  education 
and  improvement  of  the  Indian,  already  prove  by  the  success 
attained  the  wisdom  of  this  tardy  but  practical  awakening  of 
our  conscience  and  our  justice. 

Not  less  promising,  as  proof  of  the  aroused  sense  of  justice 
that  even  a  laggard  legislation  has  at  last  displayed,  is  the  ofH- 


THE  INDIAN'S   OUTLOOK. 


285 


cial  record  of  the  sums  annually  appropriated  for  Indian  edu 
cation  and  improvement.  These,  from  #168,684  IY]  l&77i  have 
steadily  increased  to  #1,211,415  in  1886. 

Progress  is  slow,  but  sure.  Relapses  into  barbarism,  even 
among  those  most  carefully  trained  to  civilized  ways,  have  been 
reported  and  may  be  repeated ;  but  it  is  no  easy  task  to  re-mold 


A    CANDIDATE    FOR    HAMPTON    SCHOOL. 


a  nature  which  has  in  it  the  hereditary  taint  of  four  centuries 
of  criminal  neglect.  Even  failure  does  not  disprove  justice, 
and  it  is  a  blessed  thing  that  in  this  selfish  world  of  ours  there 
are  still  so  many  large  and  generous  souls  in  which  lives  and 
flames  the  same  spirit  of  yearning  toward  the  unfortunate  and 
the  ignorant  that  sent  the  missionaries  of  old  into  forest  and 
fen-land,  into  danger  and  death,  for  the  intangible  reward  of 


286  THE  INDIAN'S   OUTLOOK. 

winning  souls  from  fancied  heresy  and  error.  Those  unselfish 
old  fathers  were,  to  be  sure,  supremely  selfish,  so  far  as  their 
church  and  their  order  were  concerned  ;  but  despite  their  limited 
intelligences  and  their  sadly  warped  conceptions  of  the  infi 
nite  justice  and  the  eternal  love  of  the  God  they  so  narrowly 
preached,  they  were  still  royal  souls,  glorious  in  intention,  act 
and  will,  and  were  more  supremely  heroic  than  any  one  of  the 
bloody  Indian  fighters  of  all  that  long  line  which  stretches  from 
De  Soto  to  Daniel  Boone. 

So,  even  the  worst  and  most  deplorable  elements  of  the 
Indian  life  of  to-day  —  lazy,  dirty,  improvident  and  brutish 
though  this  may  be — shall  in  time,  through  ceaseless  effort 
and  kindly  ways,  be  brought  into  the  light.  Education  and 
citizenship  shall  give  back  to  the  Indian  the  manliness  he  has 
lost,  while  the  refining  association  of  the  higher  elements  of 
civilization  so  long  denied  him  shall  make  his  restored  manli 
ness  even  more  manly,  progressive  and  permanent  than  was  the 
barbaric  vigor  of  his  noble  old  ancestors. 

"Civilization  makes  slow  progress,"  says  Mr.  Thwing,  "yet 
progress  is  made,  and  before  the  last  of  the  race  disappears 
from  the  continent  over  which  he  once  roamed  as  master,  there 
is  reason  to  hope  he  may  become  the  equal  in  all  the  arts  of 
living  of  his  white  conqueror." 

But  is  he  disappearing  ?  Apparently  he  is,  but  the  undue 
proportion  between  the  white  race  and  the  red,  and  the  shifting 
and  shiftless  ways  of  at  least  one  half  the  Indian  population  of 
to-day  makes  absolute  proof  impossible.  Opinions  differ  as  to 
the  actual  decrease  or  increase  —  for  there  are  those  who  hold 
to  the  theory  of  increase.  But  it  is  certain  that  the  total 
Indian  population  of  to-day  is  not  very  far  below  that  which 
was  so  sparsely  scattered  over  the  vast  North  American  area 


THE   INDIAN'S   OUTLOOK.  287 

when  Columbus  and  his  companions  saw  the  Southern  islands 
four  hundred  years  ago. 

The  latest  statistics  give  a  total  Indian  population  in  the 
United  States,  exclusive  of  Alaska,  as  247,761.  Add  to  this 
the  two  hundred  thousand  Indians  in  Alaska,  and  the  British 
Possessions,  and  the  total  is  not  far  below  the  estimated  half- 
million  Indian  inhabitants  that  occupied  the  North  American 
continent  at  the  time  of  discovery. 

But  how  shrunken  are  their  possessions.  The  absolute 
lords  by  right  of  inheritance  and  occupation,  four  centuries 
ago,  of  more  than  seventy-five  hundred  thousand  square  miles, 
they  can  now  legally  claim  by  the  right  of  their  reservation 
limits,  so  far  as  those  within  the  United  States  are  concerned,  a 
territory  of  less  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  square 
miles. 

And  a  comparison  of  the  standing  of  the  aboriginal  inhabi 
tants  and  their  descendants  of  to-day  reveal  some  singular  facts. 
The  Indians  of  the  South  have,  after  all,  been  most  progressive 
and  most  susceptible  of  civilization.  The  descendants  of  those 
patriotic  Americans  who  first  felt  the  white  man's  tyranny  — 
the  Creeks,  the  Choctaws  and  the  Cherokees  —  have  shown  the 
most  advance  in  education  and  the  methods  of  their  conquerors. 
The  free  Cherokees  who  dogged  De  Soto's  bloody  steps  and 
who  welcomed  Oglethorpe's  peaceful  regime,  as  they  desired 
even  in  the  good  Governor's  day  the  advantages  of  the  English 
man's  schools  for  their  own  children,  now  spend  annually  nearly 
two  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  educational  purposes. 

The  Navajos  —  denizens  of  those  mythical  "seven  cities  of 
Cibola,"  that  lured  so  many  gold-seeking  Spaniards  to  privation 
and  death,  descendants  of  the  very  men  who  made  the  story  of 
Cabeca  de  Vaca  so  wildly  romantic  —  are  now  comparatively 


288  THE  INDIAN'S   OUTLOOK. 

independent  and  self-supporting.  They  are  owners  by  their 
own  efforts  of  800,000  sheep,  250,000  horses  and  300,000  goats. 
Their  wool  clip  for  1886  exceeded  850,000  pounds,  and  they 
have  under  cultivation  12,500  acres  of  productive  land.  The 
Moquis,  relics  of  the  attempted  civilization  that  lined  the 
"  mesas  "  of  the  dry  Southwest  with  populous  "  pueblos  "  and 
fertile  farm-lands,  now  possess  over  10,000  head  of  stock  and 
made  of  their  last  wool  clip  over  3000  pounds  of  their  marvellous 
blankets.  The  Comanches,  once  the  most  blood-thirsty  of  the 
Western  tribes,  are  clamorous  for  schools  for  their  children, 
and  the  Indians  of  Wisconsin  in  1886,  banked  nearly  sixty-four 
million  feet  of  timber,  and  are  living  the  lives  of  contented 
lumbermen. 

A  study  of  life  among  the  "  Five  Civilized  Tribes "  who 
are  located  in  the  Indian  Territory  ( the  Cherokees,  Choctaws, 
Chickasaws,  Creeks  and  Seminoles )  would  cause  surprise 
among  those  who  still  hold  vague  notions  of  the  "  wildness  "  of 
the  Indians.  These  people,  so  says  Mr.  Atkins,  the  Commis 
sioner  of  Indian  Affairs  in  his  latest  report,  "  have  in  great 
measure  passed  from  a  state  of  barbarism.  Many  of  them  are 
educated  people.  They  have  fine  schools  and  churches.  They 
are  engaged  in  lucrative  business  of  various  kinds.  In  fact,  so 
far  as  outward  appearances  go,  there  would  seem  to  be  very 
little  difference  between  their  civilization  and  that  of  the 
States." 

The  Iroquois  —  most  fearless  and  ferocious  of  the  old 
barbarians  —  have,  many  of  them,  accepted  the  ways  of  the 
white  man  with  almost  as  much  intelligence  as  their  confeder 
ated  brethren  of  the  South,  and  the  exhibits  at  an  agricultural 
fair  held  by  the  u  Iroquois  Agricultural  Society,"  some  years 
ago  (in  1865),  were  a  revelation  to  many  who  knew  the  Indian  by 


THE    LAND   OF  THEIR    FATHERS. 


THE   INDIAN'S   OUTLOOK.  291 

hearsay  only  as  a  desperado  and  a  savage.  The  fair  was  open 
to  competition  to  all  of  Iroquois  lineage  and  their  descendants, 
and  Mr.  L.  L.  Doty  who  visited  it  states  that  the  samples  of 
corn,  beans,  squashes  and  potatoes  there  displayed  were  supe 
rior  to  any  he  had  ever  seen.  "  Wheat  and  other  grains,"  he 
says,  "  hogs,  a  few  sheep,  horses  and  horned  cattle  were  like 
wise  embraced  in  the  display,  as  were  also  specimens  of  bead 
and  needlework  and  other  articles  of  female  handicraft." 

And  the  latest  reports  show  no  retreat  from  this  advanced 
position.  "  The  different  tribes,"  according  to  the  latest  report 
of  the  New  York  agent,  "are  making  slow  but  sure  advance 
ment  in  civilization,  are  making  good  progress  in  agricultural 
pursuits,  and  are  rapidly  improving  their  breeds  of  horses,  cattle 
and  swine,  while  quite  a  number  of  the  young  men,  especially 
among  the  Senecas,  are  learning  the  different  mechanical 
pursuits." 

The  Indians  of  the  West,  made  up,  to-day,  of  the  scattered 
tribes  of  the  plains,  the  receding  ones  of  the  prairie  States  and 
those  of  the  East  forcibly  removed  from  their  earlier  homes 
are,  within  their  now  restricted  limits,  alike  on  New  Mexican 
plains  and  on  their  prescribed  reservations,  so  declares  a  recent 
official  authority,  Hon.  Charles  S.  Young,  of  Nevada,  "  tilling 
the  soil,  building  homes,  honoring  the  country  of  their  birth 
and  at  the  feet  of  our  civilization  are  learning  lessons  of  polit 
ical  science  and  personal  liberty." 

How  correct  as  to  actual  fact  this  last  assertion  may  be  it  is 
certainly  true  in  possibility.  The  iniquitous  system  of  Indian 
management  that  for  centuries  held  sway,  is  at  last  giving  place 
to  something  like  wisdom,  justice  and  equity,  and  both  the 
prophecy  of  Mr.  Thwing,  quoted  above,  and  the  words  of  Mr. 
Young,  may  in  time  prove  true» 


292 


THE   INDIAN'S    OUTLOOK. 


There  is,  undoubtedly,  still  room  for  improvement  in 
governmental  policy.  The  reports  of  the  Interior  Department 
still  tell  of  injustice  and  tyranny.  Even  within  the  last  two 
years  a  reader  of  these  official  records,  according  to  a  writer  in 


PACK  TRAIN  LEAVING  A  PUEBLO. 


the  Nation,  "would  learn  of  the  Utes  compelled  to  go  to  the 
mountains  for  game  (because  their  agent  had  not  rations  enough 
for  them  to  keep  them  alive,  and  their  reservation  had  been 
denuded  of  wild  animals),  and  of  their  being  attacked  there 
without  provocation  by  the  whites,  and  their  men,  women  and 
children  being  remorselessly  shot  down.  He  would  learn  of 


THE  INDIAN'S   OUTLOOK.  293 

the  pitiable  condition  of  the  Pueblos  under  white  men's  legisla 
tion  ;  of  the  manner  in  which  Indian  tribes,  nominally  under 
the  care  of  the  Government,  are  left  to  the  mercy  of  rapacious 
cattle-men  in  making  pretended  leases  of  their  lands  —  the  very 
agents  of  the  Government,  who  are  supposed  to  be  the  Indians 
guardians,  sharing  in  the  profits  of  these  speculative  transac 
tions  ;  and  of  railroads  running  through  lands  to  which  the 
Indians  have  exclusive  rights,  without  having  paid  a  penny  to 
the  Indians  as  compensation  therefor." 

The  Indian  would  have  been  more  than  human  had  he  not 
resented  the  tyranny  of  his  "  absorbers,"  especially  when  he 
began  to  realize  that,  as  one  writer  puts  it,  "  he  was  giving  the 
white  man  what  was  imperishable  in  return  for  the  perishable." 
And  when  even  this  "perishable"  was  tampered  with,  stolen  or 
delayed,  no  wonder  that  he  sought  redress. 

"  The  red  man  is  not  slow  to  observe,"  says  Mr. 
McNaughton,  "that  the  bellicose  tribes  are  the  favored  ones  — 
obtaining  their  pensions  more  promptly  and  securing  rations  of 
better  quality.  I  was  struck,"  he  adds,  "  with  the  pointed  and 
really  graphic  way  in  which  a  good-natured  Sioux  put  the  case : 
'  Bad  Injun  shake  tomahawk,  raise  shoot-gun,  get  pay  quick ! 
Me  peace  Injun  —  good,  stay  in  tepee.  Pappoose  hungry. 
Bimeby  bread  come  'long — sour!  bimeby  meat  come  'long  — 
stink!  Me  shake  tomahawk  too,  guess,  bimeby! ' 

The  Mission  Indians  of  California  in  whose  behalf  the  late 
Mrs.  Jackson  ("  H.  H.")  so  eloquently  plead  in  her  charming 
story  "  Ramona  "  are  still  the  victims  of  jealous  neighbors  and 
hostile  courts  ;  the  Mo-ko-ho-ko  branch  of  Black  Hawk's  once 
powerful  tribe  of  the  Sauks,  or  Sacs,  have  been  forced  into 
vagabondage,  and,  without  rights  either  of  citizenship  or  prop 
erty  in  the  wealthy  State  of  Kansas,  which  is  their  home,  are 


294 


THE   INDIAN'S    OUTLOOK. 


still  neglected  by  the  Government  which  should  protect  them, 
and  are  slowly  degenerating  into  a  roving  band  of  starving 
trespassers  —  a  sad  fall  from  their  once  proud  position  ;  and  the 
Yakama  Indians  of  Washington  Territory  still  plead  for  relief 
from  the  encroachments  of  their  white  neighbors,  and  make  inef- 


IN    PROCESS   OF   CIVILIZATION. 


factual  protests  against  the  violation  of  their  fishing  privileges. 
The  story  of  Me-tla-kah-tla,  that  remarkable  Indian  colony 
which  the  self-sacrifice  and  persistence  of  William  Duncan 
evolved  from  the  most  unpromising  elements  in  the  wilds  of 
British  Columbia,  is  but  a  sorry  commentary  on  the  "  methods  " 
of  a  boasted  civilization.  The  Dominion  Government  has 
treated  Mr.  Duncan  and  his  civilized  Tsimsheans  with  studied 
brutality  while  even  the  petition  of  the  persecuted  Tsimsheans 
for  permission  to  settle  upon  United  States  lands  in  Alaska 


THE  INDIAN'S  OUTLOOK.  295 

seems,  as  one  writer  declares,  "  only  an  attempt  to  fly  from  one 
persecutor  to  another."  "  No  doubt,"  says  this  same  newspaper 
critic,  "  they  will  be  allowed  to  change  masters  and  tyrants, 
though  it  is  unhappily  not  possible  to  look  forward  with  much 
confidence  to  their  future  under  the  stars  and  stripes." 

And  even  as  I  write  there  comes  from  the  West  the  latest 
story  of  the  white  man's  duplicity  and  crime,  as  if  the  les 
son  of  four  centuries  of  injustice  had  gone  for  naught.  Colo- 
row  and  his  Utes,  resenting  the  white  borderer's  theft  and  arro 
gance,  have  dared  protest,  and  at  once  cowboy  and  militiaman 
ape  De  Soto's  bloody  ways  and  join  in  "  the  sport  of  killing 
Indians,"  while  the  "paternal  government"  that  should  protect 
its  "  wards  "  stands  idly  by.  All  this  does  but  emphasize  the 
statement  of  one  of  our  great  newspapers,  that  "  the  practice  of 
keeping  no  faith  with  the  Indians  has  been  followed  almost  as 
persistently  upon  the  frontier  as  the  practice  of  keeping  no 
faith  with  heretics  was  practised  by  Alva  in  the  Netherlands." 

But  even  these  governmental  shortcomings  will,  in  time, 
give  place  to  something  like  public  conscience.  The  unselfish  la 
bors  of  the  modern  friends  of  the  Indians  are  certain  to  foster  in 
the  hearts  of  that  generous  majority  of  the  people  without  whom 
neither  Government  nor  State  can  stand,  a  growing  sense  of 
justice  and  an  increasing  desire  for  national  honor.  Public 
opinion  which  has  negligently  permitted  will  in  time  absolutly 
prevent  all  violations  of  the  nation's  faith,  and  the  rapacity  of 
the  borderer  will  at  last  give  place  to  the  kindliness  of  the 
neighbor  and  the  helpfulness  of  the  friend.  The  pauperizing 
system  of  reservation  and  ration  will  die  with  the  red  man's 
advance  toward  citizenship,  and  the  agent  and  trader  will  be 
as  thoroughly  relics  of  barbarism  as  are  the  primitive  weapons 
of  the  old-time  Indians  themselves. 


296  THE  INDIAN'S   OUTLOOK. 

So,  even  as  he  reads  the  record  of  present  Indian  griev 
ances,  the  student  of  Indian  progress  to-day,  cannot  but  be 
impressed  with  the  changed  relations  between  the  red-man  and 
the  white  as  compared  with  those  of  a  generation  ago.  "  It 
speaks  well  for  the  great  heart  of  the  people  which  lies  back  of 
and  behind  this  Government,"  says  Mr.  Atkins,  "that  they  order 
and  command  their  representatives  to  foster  a  policy  which 
alone  can  save  the  aborigines  from  destruction  —  from  being 
worn  away  by  the  attrition  of  the  conflicting  elements  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  civilization."  And,  on  the  other  hand,  the  indications 
point  to  an  improved  condition  of  affairs  among  the  Indians 
themselves.  "  The  active  inquiry  among  many  of  the  tribes  for 
further  knowledge  of  the  arts  of  agriculture,"  says  Mr.  Atkins 
in  his  latest  report ;  "  the  growing  desire  to  take  lands  in  sever- 
alty ;  the  urgent  demand  for  agricultural  implements  with 
modern  improvements ;  the  largely  increased  acreage  which  the 
Indians  have  put  to  tillage,  exceeding  that  of  any  preceding 
year ;  the  unprecedented  increase  in  the  number  of  Indian 
children  who  have  been  enrolled  in  the  schools  —  these  and 
many  other  facts  fully  establish  the  claim  that  during  the  past 
year  (1886)  the  Indian  race  has  taken  a  firmer  step  and  a 
grander  stride  in  the  great  march  toward  civilization  than  ever 
before  in  the  same  length  of  time." 

Clan  and  tribe,  totem  and  medicine,  peace-pipe  and  toma 
hawk,  the  dances,  the  ceremonies  and  the  mysteries  of  barbar 
ism  gradually  give  place  to  the  methods  and  manners  of 
civilization.  The  advanced  condition  that  some  tribes  have 
already  attained  will  in  time  be  reached  by  all,  and  Cherokee 
and  Creek,  Iroquois  and  Sioux  will  be  needless  distinctions,  for 
where  all  are  citizens  there  will  be  neither  race  discriminations 
nor  tribal  comparisons. 


THE   INDIAN'S   OUTLOOK.  297 

The  Indian  shows  more  capacity  for  instruction  than  the 
negro,  is  more  thoroughly  American  than  the  Chinese,  and 
exhibits  more  natural  ability  than  do  many  of  the  European 
immigrants  that  come  to  us  from  across  the  sea.  Where  the 
incentive  to  advancement  exists  the  result  is  sure  to  follow. 

"  My  whole  heart  is  shaking  hands  with  you,"  wrote  a  grate 
ful  Hampton  student  to  his  teacher,  and  Whittier's  recent  verses 
are  eloquently  indicative  of  the  changing  nature  of  the  Indian. 

In  the  old  time,  says  a  Micmac  legend,  Glooskap  the  Mas 
ter  made  himself  a  canoe  and  went  upon  a  mighty  river.  At 
first  it  was  broad  and  beautiful,  but  after  a  while  great  cliffs 
were  passed  which  gathered  around  and  closed  over  the  canoe 
in  a  dark  cavern.  But  the  river  ran  on  beneath  and  ever  on  far 
underground,  deeper  and  deeper  in  the  earth,  till  it  dashed 
headlong  into  rapids,  among  rocks  and  ravines,  and  under  cata 
racts  which  were  so  horrible  that  death  seemed  to  come  and  go 
with  every  plunge  of  the  canoe.  And  the  water  grew  narrower 
and  the  current  more  dreadful  and  fear  came  upon  the  com 
panions  of  Glooskap,  so  that  they  died.  But  the  Master  sat 
with  silent  soul,  though  he  sang  the  songs  of  life  and  so  passed 
into  the  night,  but  came  forth  again  into  the  sunlight.  And 
there  stood  a  wigwam  on  the  bank  into  which  he  bore  his  com 
panions  ;  and  lo !  they  arose,  and  deemed  they  had  only  slept. 
And  ever  after  the  Master  had  the  greatest  power. 

Even  thus  to-day  is  the  modern  Glooskap  —  the  renewed 
Indian  —  emerging  from  the  darkness  of  centuries  into  the  new 
day,  wherein  too  his  race  shall  be  awakened  and  disenthralled. 
It  should  be  the  duty,  now,  as  well  as  the  pleasure  of  his  white 
brethren  to  help  him  on  his  forward  way  by  the  proffer  of  citizen 
ship,  friendship  and  fellowship  until  that  denationalizing  pro 
cess  is  complete  which  is  to  amalgamate  him  into  the  real 


298 


THE  INDIAN'S   OUTLOOK. 


American  of  the  future  —  the  citizen  who  shall  know  no  dis 
tinction  of  blood  or  birth,  of  color  or  of  creed,  but  who  shall  be 
simply  and  everywhere  the  American. 

The  Indian  of  that  future  clay  will  be  as  far  removed  from 
the  Indian  of  the  past  as  is  Mr.  Gladstone  the  statesman  from 


\ 


DARKNESS. 


Hereward  the  Wake,  or  Victoria  the  Empress  from  Boadicea 
the  Briton. 

But,  in  the  story  of  the  Indian's  past,  romance  and  poetry 
may,  if  they  will  but  study  and  investigate,  find  ever  new  and 
inspiring  themes  ;  history  may  discover  new  facts  that  will  be 
shown  to  have  had  a  wonderful  bearing  upon  the  growth  and 
destiny  of  the  American  Republic  ;  theology  may  find  new  in 
dications  of  man's  inherent  excellence ;  and  philosophy  new 
data  in  explanation  of  heretofore  unexplainable  ethnic  peculi= 
arities. 

From  field  and  forest,  from  river,  lake  and  hunting-ground 
has  the  Indian  been  gradually  thrust  backward  into  a  vassal 
and  servile  state  only  to  again  emerge,  but  upon  a  higher  plane 


THE  INDIAN'S    OUTLOOK. 


299 


of  civilization.  The  old  story  is  retold,  and  again  the  fall  and 
rise  of  his  race  results  in  absolute  advancement.  And  so  out 
of  primeval  savagery,  by  rise  and  fall,  and  rise  and  fall  and  still 
by  rise  again,  standing  with  each  rise  upon  a  higher,  a  more 
manly  and  a  nobler  plane,  shall  the  American  Indian,  after  many 
ages,  find  permanent  civilization. 

Thus  the  old  order  changes ;  thus  again  is  the  Divine  plan 
of   progress  vindicated 
and    the    poet's   words 
made  fact : 


I  hold  it  truth  with  him  who 

sings, 

That  men  may  rise  on  step 
ping-stones 

Of  their  dead  selves  to  higher 
things. 


But  the  story  of  the 
American  Indian  —  his 
manners  and  customs, 
his  struggles,  his  phil 
osophy,  his  home-life, 
his  patriotism  and  his 
manliness  in  days  of 
barbarism  when,  amid 
the  forests  of  a  vast 
continent,  he  sought  to 
work  out  the  problem 
of  the  destiny  of  .his 

race  —  will  have  a  new  and  never-failing  interest  if,  as  we  read, 
we  will  but  allow  to  him  the  manhood  that  a  selfish  arrogance 
of  intelligence  has  so  Ions:  denied. 


DAYLIGHT. 


300  THE  INDIAN'S   OUTLOOK. 

The  American  Indian  tried  the  experiment  of  race  advance 
ment  on  an  imperfect  basis  —  tried  and  failed,  because  a  greater 
civilization  was  to  follow  and  make  the  trial,  upon  a  higher  and 
still  more  intellectual  plane.  We  too  may  fail  —  and  yet  there 
is  no  failure  where  progress  is  eternal. 

So  as  we  read  the  story  of  the  American  Indian,  seeking  to 
put  ourselves  in  his  place,  amid  his  surroundings  and  with  his 
aspirations  and  limitations,  we  may,  if  we  but  read  aright,  hear 
from  him  the  same  words  of  noble  warning  that  Carlyle  puts 
into  the  mouth  of  another  race,  as  childlike,  as  rude,  as  fearless, 
as  robust  as  was  the  Indian  race  of  North  America :  "  This, 
then,  is  what  we  made  of  the  world ;  this  is  all  the  image  and 
notion  we  could  form  to  ourselves  of  this  great  mystery  of  a 
Life  and  Universe.  Despise  it  not.  You  are  raised  high  above 
it,  to  large  free  scope  of  vision  ;  but  you  too  are  not  yet  at  the 
top.  No,  your  notion,  too,  so  much  enlarged,  is  but  a  partial, 
imperfect  one  ;  that  matter  is  a  thing  no  man  will  ever  in  time 
or  out  of  time  comprehend;  after  thousands  of  years  of  ever 
new  expansion,  man  will  find  himself  but  struggling  to  com 
prehend  again  a  part  of  it ;  the  thing  is  larger  than  man,  not 
to  be  comprehended  by  him ;  an  Infinite  thing ! " 


THE  BEST  HUNDRED  BOOKS  ON  THE 
AMERICAN  INDIAN. 

This  list  of  one  hundred  books  relating  to  the  history,  manners  and  customs 
of  the  North  American  Indian  does  not  purport  to  be  either  a  complete  or  an 
exhaustive  one.  It  merely  selects  from  the  abundant  material  on  the  subject 
those  books  best  calculated  to  present  the  details  of  the  Indian's  story.  The 
transactions  of  the  Historical  Societies  of  the  several  States,  though  full  of  ma 
terial,  are  not  enumerated  here,  and  the  list  of  government  publications  is 
intentionally  incomplete.  The  list  is  more  a  suggestive  than  a  comprehensive 
one,  but  it  does  give  the  leading  books  devoted  to  the  study  of  the  American 
Indian.  •  Acknowledgment  is  due  to  the  very  thorough  Indian  bibliography 
of  the  late  Thomas  Field,  which  has  furnished  suggestions  and  notes  for  this 
list.  The  most  of  the  books  enumerated  may  be  found  at  the  public  libraries. 

Abbott  (John  S.  C.). 

History  of  King  Philip  (Sovereign  Chief  of  the  Wampanoags).  Including  the  early  history 
of  the  Settlers  of  New  England.  (With  engravings.)  I2mo,  410  pp.  New  York,  1857. 

Ballantyne  (Robert  Michael). 

Hudson's  Bay ;  or  E  very-Day  Life  in  the  Wilds  of  North  America  during  Six  Years'  Resi 
dence  in  the  Territories  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company.  I2mo,  pp.  298.  Boston,  1859. 

Bancroft  (Hubert  Howe). 
The  Native  Races  of  the  Pacific  States  of  North  America.     5  vols.     8vo.     New  York,  1876. 

Barber  (John  Warner). 

The  History  and  Antiquities  of  New  England,  New  York,  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania, 
embracing  Discoveries,  Settlements,  Indian  History,  etc.,  etc.  8vo.,  pp.  624.  Hartford, 
1856. 

Benson  (Henry  C.). 

Life  among  the  Choctaw  Indians,  and  Sketches  of  the  Southwest.     I2mo,  pp.  314.     Cincin 
nati,  1860. 
"  An  every  day  story  of  incidents  and  characters,  grave  or  ludicrous  ;  — a  veritable  relation  of  personal  experiences 

during  three  years'  service  among  the  Choctaws."  —  FIELD. 

Black  Hawk. 

Life  of  Black  Hawk.  Dictated  by  himself.  J.  B.  Patterson,  Editor.  i6mo,  pp.  155. 
Boston,  1845. 

Blake  (Alexander  V.). 

Anecdotes  of  the  American  Indians.     i6mo,  pp.  252.     Hartford,  1850. 

Boiler  (Henry  A.). 

Among  the  Indians.     Eight  Years  in  the  Far  West,  1858-1866.     I2mo,  pp.  428.     Phila 
delphia,  1868. 
An  endeavor  to  faithfully  portray  Indian  life  in  its  home  aspect. 

3OI 


302          THE   BEST  HUNDRED  BOOKS   ON  THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN. 

Brinton  (Daniel  G.). 

The  Lenape  and  their  Legends,  with  the  Complete  Text  and  Symbols  of  the  Walam  Olum 
[Brinton's  Library  of  Aboriginal  Literature,  No.  5.]     Philadelphia,  1885. 

Brinton  (Daniel  G.). 

The  Myths  of  the  New  World.  A  Treatise  on  the  Symbolism  and  Mythology  of  the  Red 
Race  of  America.  I2ino,  pp.  337.  New  York,  1876. 

Brownell  (Charles  de  Wolf). 

The  Indian  Races  of  North  and  South  America.  8vo,  pp.  720  +  4°  full-page  plates.  New 
York,  1857. 

Bryant  (Charles  S.). 

A  History  of  the  Great  Massacre  by  the  Sioux  Indians  in  Minnesota,  including  the  personal 
narratives  of  many  who  escaped.  By  Charles  S.  Bryant  and  Abel  B.  Murch.  i2mo, 
pp.  504.  Cincinnati,  1864. 

Buchanan  (James). 

Sketches  of  the  History,  Manners  and  Customs  of  the  North  American  Indian  with  a  Plan 
for  their  Melioration.  Two  vols.  I2mo.  New  York,  1824. 

Cabeca  de  Vaca  (Alvarez  Nunez). 

Relation  of  Alvarez  Nunez  Cabeca  de  Vaca.     Translated  from  the  Spanish  by  Buckingham 
Smith.     8vo,  pp.  300.     N.  Y.,  1871. 
The  earliest  historic  memoir  of  the  Indian  races  of  the  Southern  States  from  Florida  to  Texas. 

Catlin  (George).  .  - 

Letters  and  Notes  of  the  Manners,  Customs  and  Condition  of  the  North  American  Indians, 

•  written  during  eight  years'  travel  amongst  the  wildest  tribes  of  Indians  in  North  America. 
Two  vols.  8vo.  With  one  hundred  and  fifty  ill.  on  steel  and  wood.  pp.  792  +  41  plates. 
Philadelphia,  1857. 

Catlin  (George). 

Last  Rambles  among  the  Indians  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  Andes.  I2mo,  pp.  371;  8 
plates  and  16  wood  cuts  of  Indian  portraits,  life  and  scenery.  New  York,  1867. 

Charlevoix  (P.  F.  X.  de). 

History  and  General  Description  of  New  France.     Translated  with  Notes  by  John  Gilmary 
Shea.     6  vols.     Imp.  8vo.     Illustrated  with  plates,  portraits  and  maps.     New  York,  1872. 
"  The  most  authentic  accounts  of  the  Indians  of  Canada  ever  given.     .     .     .    The  work  teems  with  vivid  rela 
tions  of  their  customs,  religious  rites,  and  other  peculiarities." —  FIELD. 

Cherokee. 

A  Faithful  History  of  the  Cherokee  Tribe  of  Indians,  from  the  period  of  our  first  inter 
course  with  them  down  to  the  present  time  ;  .  .  .  .  with  a  full  exposition  of  ... 
.  their  ....  division  into  three  parties  ....  and  of  the  nature  and  extent 
of  their  present  claims.  (The  Commissioner's  report)  Washington,  1846.  8vo. 

Church  (Thomas). 

The  History  of  Philip's  War,  commonly  called  The  Great  Indian  War  of  1675  and  l676- 
Also  of  the  French  and  Indian  Wars  at  the  Eastward,  1689-  1704.  With  Notes  and  Ap 
pendix  by  Samuel  G.  Drake.  I2tno,  pp.  360  +  2  plates.  Boston,  1827.  Hartford,  1852. 

Clark  (J.  V.  H.). 

Lights  and  Lines  of  Indian  Character  and  Scenes  of  Pioneer  Life.  I2mo,  pp.  375.  Syra 
cuse,  1854. 

Clark  (J.  V.  H.). 

Onondaga;  or,  Reminiscences  of  Earlier  and  Later  Times.  .  .  .  2  vols.  8vo.  Syra 
cuse,  1849. 

A  valuable  and  important  work. 
Clark  (J.  V.  H.). 

Tradition  of  Hi-a-wat-ha.  Origin  of  the  Narrative  of  the  Onondaga  Tradition  of  Hi-a-wat-ha. 
and  Correspondence  relative  thereto.  Syracuse,  1856.  8vo. 


THE  BEST  HUNDRED  BOOKS  ON  THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN,         303 

Golden  (Cadwallader). 

The  History  of  the  Five  Indian  Nations  Depending  on  the  Province  of  New  York.  Re 
printed  exactly  from  Bradford's  New  York  Edition  (1727).  With  an  Introduction  and  Notes 
by  John  Gilmary  Shea.  8vo,  portrait,  and  pp.  199.  New  York,  1866. 

Colton  (C.). 

Tour  of  the  American  Lakes,  and  among  the  Indians  of  the  Northwest  Territory  in  1830 : 
Disclosing  the  Character  and  Prospects  of  the  Indian  Race.  2  vols.  London,  1833. 

Copway  (George). 

The  Traditional  History  and  Characteristic  Sketches  of  the  Ojibway  Nation,  by  G.  Copway 
(Kah-ge-ga-gah-bouh,  Chief  of  the  Ojibway  Nation).  111.  by  Darley.  I2mo,  pp.  266,  2 
plates.  Boston,  1851. 

Cremony  (John  C.). 

Life  among  the  Apaches,  by  John  C.  Cremony,  Interpreter  to  the  U.  S.  Boundary  Commis 
sion,  in  1849,  '50  and  '51.  I2mo,  pp.  322.  San  Francisco,  1868. 

Custer  (G.  A.). 
My  Life  on  the  Plains.     111.     8vo.     New  York,  1874. 

Davis  (A.  C.)- 

Frauds  of  the  Indian  Office.  Argument  of  A.  C.  Davis  before  the  Committee  of  Indian 
Affairs  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  Jan.  12,  1867.  .  .  .  Washington,  1867. 

Davis  (W.  W.  H.). 

The  Spanish  Conquest  of  New  Mexico.  8vo,  pp.  438,  map  and  portrait.  Doyleston,  Pa., 
1869. 

"  His  narrative  of  the  prolonged  hostilities  between  the  Spaniards  and  the  Indians  and  of  the  religious  rites,  meth 
ods  of  warfare  and  peculiar  ceremonies  of  the  latter  is  fresh,  vigorous  and  entertaining."  —  FIELD. 

Dawson  (Moses). 

A  Historical  Narrative  of  the  Civil  and  Military  Services  of  Major  General  Harrison. 
.  .  .  .  With  a  Detail  of  his  Negotiations  and  Wars  with  the  Indians,  until  the  final 
overthrow  of  the  celebrated  Chief,  Tecumseh,  and  his  Brother,  the  Prophet.  Written  and 
compiled  from  original  and  authentic  Documents By  Moses  Daw- 
son.  8vo,  pp.  464.  Cincinnati,  1814. 
One  of  the  most  thorough,  complete  and  authentic  treatises  on  the  Border  Wars  of  the  West. 

Dodge  (J.  R.). 

Red  Men  of  the  Ohio  Valley,  an  Aboriginal  History  of  the  period  commencing  A.  D.,  1650, 
and  ending  at  the  treaty  of  Greenville,  A.  D.,  1795,  embracing  notable  facts  and  thrilling 
incidents  in  the  settlement  by  the  Whites  of  the  States  of  Kentucky,  Ohio,  Indiana  and 
Illinois.  I2mo,  pp.  435.  Springfield,  O.,  1860. 

Dodge  (R.  I.). 

Our  Wild  Indians  :  with  an  introduction  by  General  W.  T  Sherman.  111.  8vo.  Hartford, 
Ct.,  1882. 

Dodge  (R.  I.). 

Plains  of  the  great  West,  and  their  inhabitants.     111.     8vo.     New  York  1877. 

Drake  (Benjamin). 

Life  of  Tecumseh,  and  of  his  Brother,  the  Prophet ;  with  a  Historical  Sketch  of  the  Shaw- 
anoe  Indians.  By  Benjamin  Drake.  I2mo,  pp.  235.  Cincinnati,  1841. 

Drake  (S.  G.). 

Biography  and  History  of  the  Indians  of  North  America,  from  its  first  Discovery.     8vo,  pp. 
720  4-  8  plates.     Boston,  1857. 
A  standard  and  valuable  work. 

Drake  (S.  G.). 

The  Old  Indian  Chronicle ;  being  a  Collection  of  exceeding  rare  Tracts,  Written  and  Pub 
lished  in  the  Time  of  King  Philip's  War,  by  persons  residing  in  the  country.  To  which  are 
now  added  an  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  Samuel  G.  Drake,  pp.  333.  Boston,  1867. 


304         THE  BEST  HUNDRED  BOOKS  ON  THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN. 

Drake  (S.  G.). 

The  History  of  King  Philip's  War.  By  the  Rev.  Increase  Mather,  D.  D.  Also  a  History 
of  the  same  War,  by  the  Rev.  Cotton  Mather,  D.  D.,  to  which  are  added,  an  Introduction 
and  Notes,  by  Samuel  G.  Drake.  .  .  .  4to,  pp.  281. 

Dunn  (John). 

History  of  the  Oregon  Territory  and  British  North-American  Fur  Trade ;  with  an  Account 
of  the  habits  and  customs  of  the  principal  native  tribes  on  the  Northern  Continent.  By 
John  Dunn,  late  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Co.  8vo,  pp.  359  -f-  map.  Philadelphia,  1845. 

Dunn  (J.  P.  Jr.). 

Massacres  of  the  Mountains ;  a  history  of  the  Indian  wars  of  the  Far  West.  pp.  784.  ill. 
and  maps.  New  York,  1886. 

"  A  graphic  account  of  the  Indian  wars  of  the  past  f.fty  years.     Written  with  unusual  earnestness  and  a  full  appre 
ciation  of  the  injustice  done  the  Indians."  — American  Catalogue. 

Dorman  (Rushton  M.). 

The  Origin  of  Primitive  Superstitions  and  their  Development  into  the  Worship  of  Spirits 
and  the  Doctrine  of  Spiritual  Agency  among  the  Aborigines  of  America.  8vo,  pp.  398. 
ill.  Philadelphia,  1881. 

Doty  (Lockwood  L.). 

History  of  Livingston  Co.,  New  York    ....     with  an  Account  of  the  Seneca  Nation 
of  Indians,  etc.     8vo,  pp.  685.     Geneseo,  1876. 
118  pages  of  this  volume  treat  very  fully  of  the  Seneca  Indians. 

Eastman  (Mrs.  Mary). 

Dah-co-tah,  or  Life  and  Legends  of  the  Sioux  around  Fort  Snelling,  by  Mrs.  Mary  Eastman, 
with  Preface  by  Mrs.  C.  M.  Kirkland.  111.  from  drawings  by  Captain  Eastman.  121110, 
pp.  xi+268.  New  York,  1849. 

Eggleston  (Edward)  {and  others]. 

(Famous  American  Indians.)     5  v.,  ill.,  I2mo.     New  York,  1878-80. 

[Contain :  Tecumseh  and  the  Shawnee  Prophet ;  by  E.  Eggleston  and  Mrs.  L.  E.  Seelye.  — 
Red  Eagle  ;  by  G.  C.  Eggleston.  —  Pocahontas  ;  by  E.  Eggleston  and  Mrs.  L.  E.  Seelye.  — 
Brant  and  Red  Jacket ;  by  E.  Eggleston  and  Mrs.  L.  E.  Seelye.  —  Montezuma ;  by  E. 
Eggleston  and  Mrs.  L.  E.  Seelye. 

Ellis  (G.  E.). 
The  red  man  and  the  white  man  in  North  America.     8vo.     Boston,  1882. 

Emerson  (Ellen  Russell). 

Indian  Myths;  or  Legends,  Traditions  and  Symbols  of  the  Aborigines  of  America.  Plates 
and  diagrams.  8vo.  Boston,  1884. 

Events  in  Indian  History. 

Beginning  with  an  Account  of  the  Origin  of  the  American  Indians  and  Early  Settlements  in 
North  America,  and  embracing  concise  Biographies  of  the  principal  Chiefs  and  head  Sa 
chems  of  the  different  Indian  Tribes,  with  Narratives  and  Captivities.  111.  with  8  fine 
engravings.  8vo,  pp.  633.  Lancaster,  1841. 

Finley  (J.  B.). 

Life  among  the  Indians  ;  or,  Personal  Reminiscences  and  Historical  Incidents  illustrative  of 
Indian  Life  and  Character.  By  Rev.  James  B.  Finley.  I2mo,  pp.  548.  Cincinnati,  1868. 

Flint  (Timothy). 

Indian  Wars  of  the  West,  containing  Biographical  Sketches  of  the  Pioneers,  together 
with  a  View  of  the  Character,  Manners,  Monuments  and  Antiquities  of  the  Western  In 
dians.  I2mo,  pp.  240.  Cincinnati,  1833. 

Goodrich  (S.  G.). 

History  of  the  Indians  of  North  and  South  America.  By  the  author  of  Peter  Parley's  Tales. 
i6mo,  pp.  320.  Boston,  1855. 

Manners  and  Customs  of  American  Indians.     111.     i6mo.     Boston. 

[These  are  volumes  in  Peter  Parley's  "  Youth's  Library  of  History."] 


THE  BEST  HUNDRED  BOOKS  ON  THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN.        305 

Hall  (James). 

Sketches  of  History,  Life  and  Manners  in  the  West.     2  vols.     I2mo.     Philadelphia,  1835. 
Halkett  (John). 

Historical  Notes  respecting  the  Indians  of  North  America,  with  remarks  on  the  attempts 
made  to  convert  and  civilize  them.     8vo,  pp.  408.     London,  1825. 
Harrison  (J.  B.). 

The  latest  Studies  of  Indian  Reservations.  A  pamphlet  issued  by  the  Indian  Rights  Asso 
ciation.  Philadelphia,  1887. 

A  valuable  and  careful  study  of  the  latest  phases  of  Reservation  life. 
Harvey  (Henry). 

History  of  the  Shawnee  Indians,  from  the  year  1681  to  1854  inclusive,  by  Henry  Harvey,  a 
member  of  the  Society  of  Friends.     I2mo,  pp.  316.     Cincinnati,  1855. 
Hawkins  (Benjamin). 

Sketch  of  the  Creek  Country  with  a  Description  of  the  Tribes,  Government  and  Customs 
of  the  Creek  Indians,  by  Col.  Benjamin  Hawkins,  for  20  years  Resident  Agent  of  that  Nation. 
Preceded  by  a  Memoir  of  the  Author  and  a  history  of  the  Creek  Confederacy.     8vo,  pp.  88. 
Savannah,  1848. 
Heard  (Isaac  V.  D.). 

History  of  the  Sioux  War  and  Massacres  of  1862  and  1863.     I2mo,  pp.  354  with  33  plates. 
New  York,  1865. 
Heckewelder  (J.). 

History,  Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Indian  Nations  who  once  inhabited  Pennsylvania  and 
the  neighboring  States.     New  revised  edition,  introduction  and  notes  by  W    C.   Reichel. 
8vo.     Philadelphia,  1876. 
Helps  (Arthur). 

The  Life  of  Las  Casas,  "  The  Apostle  of  the  Indies."     I2mo,  pp.  292.     Philadelphia,  1868. 
Helps  (Arthur). 

The  Spanish  Conquest  in  America,  and  its  relation  to  the  History  of  Slavery  and  to  the 
Government  of  the  Colonies.  Four  vols.  8vo.  London,  1861. 

"  A  noble  work  devoted  to  the  history  of  the  relations  of  the  Indians  of  America  to  its  Spanish  invaders  and  the 
effect  of  their  occupation  and  conquest  upon  the  population,  religion  acd  manners  of  the  aborigines."  — FIELD. 
Hubbard  (William). 

The  History  of  the  Indian  Wars  in  New  England,  from  the  First  Settlement  to  the  Termina 
tion  of  theWar  with  King  Philip  in  1677.  From  the  Original  Work  by  Rev.  Wm.  Hubbard. 
Carefully  revised,  and  accompanied  with  an  Historical  Preface,  Life  and  Pedigree  of  the 
Author,  and  extensive  Notes.  By  Samuel  G.  Drake.  2  vols.  Large  8vo.  Roxbury, 
Mass.,  1865. 
Indian  Laws. 

Laws  of  the  Colonial  and  State  Governments,  relating  to  Indians  and  Indian  Affairs  from 
1633  to  1831  inclusive;   with  an  Appendix  containing  the   Proceedings  of  the  Congress  of 
the  Confederation ;  and  the  Laws  of  Congress  from  1800  to  1830  on  the  same  subject.    8vo, 
pp.  250  and  Appendix  pp.  72.     Washington,  1832. 
Indian  Treaties. 

And  Laws  and  Regulations  relating  to  Indian  Affairs,  to  which  is  added,  an  Appendix  con 
taining  the  proceedings  of  the  Old  Congress,  and  other  important  State  papers  in  relation  to 
Indian  Affairs.  8vo,  pp.  661.  Washington,  1826. 

Contains  an  abstract  of  treaty  stipulations  with  the  Indians,  a  statement  of  the  obligations  by  which  the  savage 
tribes  and  the  United  States  authorities  mutually  bound  themselves,  Sequoyah's  Cherokee  Alphabet  and  a  mass  of 
historic  and  personal  data. 
Irving  (John  T.). 

Indian  Sketches  taken  during  an  Expedition  to  the  Pawnee  Tribes.  2  vols.  I2mo.  Phila 
delphia.  1835. 


306         THE  BEST  HUNDRED  BOOKS  ON   THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN. 

Jackson  (Mrs.  Helen). 

A  Century  of  Dishonor:  Sketch  of  the  United  States  Government's  dealings  with  some  of 

the  Indian  tribes.     I2mo.     New  York,  1881. 

An  eloquent  and  enthusiastic  plea  for  justice  to  the  Indian  by  a  writer  of  ability  and  considerable  dramatic  force. 
Her  story  of  "  Ramona  "  which  is  based  upon  the  wrongs  suffered  by  the  Indians  of  Southern  California  has, 
also,  been  the  means  of  awakening  public  sympathy  in  behalf  of  a  persecuted  race.  Both  books,  however,  are 
written  in  a  spirit  of  indignant  and  unqualified  censure  and  should  be  read  rather  with  caution  than  absolute  accep 
tance. 
Jones  (Charles  C.,  Jr.). 

Antiquities  of  the  Southern  Indians,  particularly  of  the   Georgia  Tribes.     8vo,  pp.  352. 

New  York,  1873. 
Jones  (Charles  C.,  Jr.). 

Historical  Sketch  of  Tomo-chi-chi,  Mico  of  the  Yamacraws.     8vo,  pp.  133.     Albany,  N.  Y. 

1868. 
Kohl  (Johann). 

Kitchi  Garni.     Wanderings  around  Lake  Superior.     London,  1860. 

"  One  of  the  most  exhaustive  and  valuable  treatises  on  Indian  life  ever  written." —  FIELD. 
Leland  (Charles  G.). 

The  Algonquin  Legends  of  New  England,  or  Myths  and  Folk  lore  of  the  Micmac,  Passama- 

quoddy  and  Penobscot  Tribes.      I2mo,  pp.,  379.     111.     Boston,  1884. 
Lewis  and  Clark. 

History  of  the  Expedition  under  the  command  of  Captains  Lewis  and  Clark,  to  the  Sources 

of  the  Missouri,  thence  across  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  down  the  River  Columbia  to  the 

Pacific  Ocean.     Performed  during  the  years  1804-5-6.     By  order  of  the  Government  of  the 

United  States.      Prepared  for  the  press  by  Paul  Allen.       Two  vols.,  8vo.      Maps,  plans 

and  copious  tables.     New  York,  1868. 

"An  interesting  work  whose  value  to  the  historian,  the  student  or  the  reader  for  amusement  has  not  been  super 
seded  by  the  relations  of  expeditions  which  have  succeeded  it."  —  FIELD. 

McKenney  and  Hall. 

History  of  the  Indian  tribes  of  North  America,  with  Biographical  Sketches  and  Anecdotes 
of  the  Principal  Chiefs.  Embellished  with  120  portraits,  from  the  Indian  Gallery  in  the 
Department  of  War  at  Washington.  By  Thos.  L.  McKenney  and  James  Hall.  Philadelphia, 

1837- 
One  of  the  most  costly  and  important  works  upon  the  American  Indian  ever  published. 

McKenney  (Thomas  L.). 

Memoirs,  Official  and  Personal,  with  Sketches  of  Travels  among  the  Northern  and  Southern 
Indians ;  embracing  a  War  excursion  and  descriptions  of  scenes  along  the  Western  borders. 
8vo,  pp.  476,  and  twelve  plates.  New  York,  1846. 

McKenney  (Thomas  L.). 

Sketches  of  a  Tour  to  the  Lakes,  of  the  Character  and  Customs  of  the  Chippeway  Indians. 
And  of  incidents  connected  with  the  Treaty  of  Fond  du  Lac.  Also,  a  Vocabulary  of  the 
Algic,  or  Chippeway  Language.  .  .  .  Ornamented  with  29  engravings  of  Lake  Superior 
and  other  scenery,  Indian  likenesses,  Costumes,  etc.  8vo,  29  plates  and  pp.  493.  Balti 
more,  1827. 

Morgan  (Lewis  H.). 

Houses  and  House-Life  of  the  American  Aborigines.  Vol.  IV.  of  Contributions  to  North 
American  Ethnology,  pp.  xiv-f-28i.  111.  4to.  Published  by  the  United  States  Geograph 
ical  and  Geological  Survey  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  Region.  Washington,  1881. 

Morgan  (Lewis  H.). 

League  of  the  Hode-no-sau-nee,  or  Iroquois.  8vo,  pp.  477+23  maps,  plates,  and  plans. 
Rochester,  1851. 


THE  BEST  HUNDRED  BOOKS  ON  THE  AMERICAN  INDIAN.        307 

Morse  (Rev.  Jedediah). 

A  Report  to  the  Secretary  of  War  of  the  United  States   on  Indian  Affairs,  comprising  a 
narrative  of  a  tour  performed  in  the  summer  of  1820,  under  a  commission  from  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States,  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining,  for  the  use  of  the  government, 
the  actual  state  of  the  Indian  tribes  in  our  country.     8vo,  pp.  500.     New  Haven,  1822. 
"  Certainly  the  most  complete  and  exhaustive  report  of  the  condition,  numbers,  names,  territory,  and  general 

affairs  of  the  Indians  (as  they  existed  in  the  year  1820)  ever  made."  —  FIELD. 

Parkman  (Francis). 

The  Conspiracy  of  Pontiac  and  the  Indian  War  after  the  Conquest  of  Canada.  2  vols., 
8vo.  Boston,  1880. 

Parkman  (Francis). 

The  Jesuits  in  North  America  in  the  i;th  Century.     8vo,  pp.  463.     Boston,  1880. 

Parkman  (Francis). 
La  Salle  and  the  Discovery  of  the  Great  West.     8vo,  pp.  483.     Boston,  1879. 

Parkman  (Francis.) 

The  Oregon  Trail.  Sketches  of  Prairie  and  Rocky  Mountain  Life.  8vo,pp.  381.  Boston 
1880. 

Parkman  (Francis). 

Pioneers  of  France  in  the  New  World.     8vo,  pp.  427.     Boston,  1879. 

Parry  (Capt.  W.  E.). 

Journal  of  a  Second  Voyage  for  the  Discovery  of  a  Northwest  passage  from  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Pacific  ;  performed  in  the  years  1821-22-23  in  His  Majesty's  Ships  Fury  and  Hecla,  under 
the  orders  of  Captain  Wm.  Edward  Parry,  R.  N.,  F.  R.  S.,  and  Commander  of  the  Expedi 
tion.  111.,  with  numerous  Plates.  Published  by  authority  of  the  Lords  Commissioners  of 
the  Admiralty.  4to.  London,  1824. 
"  A  splendid  treatise  on  aboriginal  life."  —  FIELD. 

Powell  (J.  W.). 

Annual  Reports  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology  (devoted  to  practical  researches  among  the 
North  American  Indians)  issued  under  the  supervision  of  Major  J.  W.  Powell,  director  of 
the  Bureau  (with  Illustrations).  4to.  Government  Printing  Office,  Washington. 

Rultenber  (E.  M.). 

History  of  the  Indian  Tribes  of  Hudson's  River ;  their  Origin,  Manners  and  Customs ; 
Tribal  and  sub-tribal  Organizations;  Wars,  Treaties,  etc.,  etc.  8vo,  pp.  415  +  5  plates. 
Albany,  N.  Y.,  1872. 

Swan  (James  G.)- 

The  Northwest  Coast ;  or  Three  Years'  Residence  in  Washington  Territory.     With  numer 
ous  Illustrations.     I2mo,  pp.  445.     Map  and  27  plates.     New  York,  1857. 
A  minute  record  of  the  life,  habits,  ceremonies  and  conditions  of  the  Indian  of  the  Northwest. 

Stone  (William  L.). 

The  Life  and  Times  of  Red-Jacket,  or  Sa-go-ye-wat-ha,  chief  of  the  Senecas.     8vo,  pp.  484 
+  portrait.     New  York  and  London,  1841. 
Contains  also  a  biography  of  Farmar's  Brother  and  one  of  Cornplanter — two  celebrated  chiefs  of  the  Senecas. 

Stone  (William  L.). 

Life  of  Joseph  Brant  (Thayendanegea),  including  the  Border  Wars  of  the  American  Rev 
olution  and  Sketches  of  the  Indian  Campaigns  of  Generals  Harmar,  St.  Clair  and  Wayne, 
and  other  matters  connected  with  the  Indian  Relations  of  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain,  from  the  peace  of  1783  to  the  Indian  peace  of  1795.  2  v°ls-  Albany,  1864. 

Sprague  (John  T.). 
The  Origin,  Progress,  and  Conclusion  of  the  Florida  War,  etc.     8vo,  pp.  557.     New  Yo.-k. 


"The  story  of  the  wonderful  contests  of  a  savage  tribe  of  less  than  4000  in  1822  and  less  than  1000  in  184; 
the  disciplined  forces  of  the  United  States."  —  FIELD. 


3oS         THE  BEST  HUNDRED  BOOKS-   ON  THE  AMERltAN  INDIAN. 

Sproat  (G.  M.).     Scenes  and  Studies  of  Savage  Life.     i2mo,  pp.  317.     London,  1868. 

A  record  of  seven  years'  experience  among  the  savages  of  Vancouver. 
Smith  (John). 

A  True  Relation  of  Virginia  by  Captain  John  Smith,  with  an  introduction  and  notes  by 

Charles  Deane.     4to,  pp.  88.     Boston,  1886. 
Simpson  (James  H.). 

Journal  of  a  Military  Reconnoissance  from  Santa  Fe,  New  Mexico,  to  the  Navajo  Country 

in  1849.     8vo.     Philadelphia,  1852. 

A  complete  and  accurate  account  of  life  among  the  Zuni  and  Pueblo  Indians. 
Shea  (John  Gilmary). 

History  of  the  Catholic  Missions  among  the  Indian  Tribes  of  the  United  States.  1529-1854. 

I2mo,  pp.  508+5  portraits.     New  York,  1855. 
Shea  (John  Gilmary.) 

Early  voyages  up  and  down  the  Mississippi,  by  Cavalier,  St.  Cosme,  Le  Suer,  Gravier,  and 

Guignas.     With  an  Introduction,  Notes,  and  an  Index.     4to.     Albany,  1861. 
Filled  with  interesting  details  of  the  peculiarities  of  the  Indians  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  at  discovery. 
Statistical  Report 

of  the  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs.     8vo.     Washington,  1835  to  l&&7- 

"  A  body  of  material  relating  to  the  Indians  almost  unrivalled  for  its  minuteness  in  any  department  of  history."  — 
FIELD. 
Shea  (John  Gilmary). 

Discovery  and  Exploration  of  the  Mississippi  Valley :  with  the  original  narratives  of  Mar- 

quette,  Allouez,  Membre,  Hennepin  and  Anastase  Douay.     By  John  Gilmary  Shea,  with  a 

fac-simile  of  thlfnewly-discovered  map  of  Marquette.     8vo,  pp.  268.     New  York,  1853. 
Schoolcraft  (Henry  R.). 

Information  respecting  the  History,  Condition  and  Prospects  of  the  Indian  Tribes  of  the 

United  States.     Collected  and  prepared  under  the  direction  of  the  Bureau  of  Indian  Affairs 

per  Act  of  Congress  March  3,  1847.     Published   by  authority  of  Congress.     6  vols.,  4to. 

Philadelphia,  1857. 

"  With  great  earnestness,  some  fitness  for  research  and  a  good  deal  of  experience  of  Indian  life,  Mr.  Schoolcraft 
had  but  little  learning  and  no  scientific  training.     His  six  volumes  are  badly  arranged  and  selected,  but  contain  a  vast 
mass  of  really  valuable  material." — FIELD. 
Transactions 

Of  the  American  Ethnological  Society.     New  York,  1845-1848. 

A  large  and  valuable  collection  of  material  descriptive  of  the  history,  antiquities,  language  and  origin  of  the 
American  Indian, 


INDEX. 


ACTAHACHI  the  Creek  276 

Agriculture  160 

Algonquin  family,  the  67 

Appalachian  races  71 

America,  Pre-Columbian  discoverers  of  58 

America,  Primeval,  Possibilities  of  37 

America,  Savage  16-20 

Americans,  Prehistoric  12-16 

American  race,  Origin  of  12-16 

Anilco  the  Chickasaw  263 

Arapaho  War  (of  1864)  226 

Apache  War  (of  1861)  226 

Arber,  Professor  (as  to  the  Pocahontas  story)  264 

Archery  161 

Archihes,  the  Maryland  sagamore  212 
Asseola  (Osceola)  the  Seminole,     71,  220,  225,  260,  275 

Atkins,  Commissioner  288,  295 
Atotarho,  Myth  of        45  ;      as  a  personification,       50 

Athabascan  family,  the  67 

Aztec  civilization  26,  108 

Aztec  Confederacy  104 


BACHOFEN,  Prof,  (on  gyneocracy)  123 

Balboa  (on  Spanish  ill-treatment)  60 
Bancroft,  H.   H.  (on  the  oppression  of  Indian 

women)  159 

Bi-aus-wah  the  Ojibway,  Anecdote  of  76 

Blackfeet  war  (of  1869)  226 
Black  Hawk  (see  Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiah) 

Black  Hawk's  War  (of  1832)  224 
Brant,  Joseph  (see  Tha-yen-da-ne-gea) 

Books  on  American  Indian,  Best  hundred  300 
Border  life,  Demoralizing  effects  of                      210,  224 

Brice,  John  (description  of  Indian  council)  166 

Brinton,  Dr.  D.  G.  (on  primitive  superstition)  87 

Burke,  Edmund  (definition  of  government)  72 

Byam,  Mr.  (on  the  status  of  the  Indian)  283 


CABOTS,  the 

Californu  Massacres  (of  1851) 

C'alifornian  races 

Capafi  the  Creek 

Captain  Jack  (see  Kient-poos) 

Cartier,  Jacques 

Cayugas 

Cayuse  Massacres  (of  1847) 

Cave-dwellers 


it,  178,  193 
225 

68 
196 

115,  184 

99 

225 

18 


Charleviox,  P.  F.  X.  de  (on  Indian  intelligence)         145 
Chata,  "  War  Woman  "  of  276 

Cheeshabteaumuck  Caleb,  Harvard  graduate  284 

Cherokees     185,  276  ;     Present  condition  of,     287,  288 
Chickataubut  the  Massachusett  276 


Choctaws,  Present  condition  of 

Clan  and  tribe,  Difference  between 

Cliff-dwellers 

Cofitachiqui,  the  Chieftainess  of 

Colorow  the  Ute 

Columbian  races 


287,  288 
97 
34 

71$,  196,  263 

295 

68 


Columbus                        ii,  59,  60,  176,  177,  183,  193,  199 

Comanches,  Present  condition  of  287,  288 

Commercial  intercourse  between  tribes  163,  174 

Consanguinity,  Law  of  171 

Controversy,  Law  of  170 

Cooke,  John  Esten  (on  women  chiefs)  159 

Coolidge,  A.  J.  (on  Colonial  treatment}  201 

Corn-planter  the  Iroquois  276 

Cortereal  178,  183,  193 

Cradle,  the  Indian  138 

Creation,  Iroquois  account  of  n 

Creeks        104 ;        Present  condition  of  287,  288 

Creek  War  (1813)  224 
Crook,  General  George  (on  Indian  intelligence)        249 


DAKOTA  family,  the 

Dances 

De  Ayllon 

De  Cordova 

De  Leon,  Ponce 

De  Quexos 


67,  98,  104 
148 

194 
194 
194 
194 


De  Soto,  Hernando  115,  183,  185,  195,  197,  252,  276,  287 
De  Vaca,  Cabeca  195,  287 

Diaz,  Bernal ;  his  story  of  the  Conquest  of  Mexico 

discredited,  26 

Diggar  War  (of  1858)  226 

Divorce  124,  120 

Donnacona  the  Algonquin  115,  185 

Dorman  (on  Indian  superstitions)  147,  152 

Dorsey,  Rev.  J.  Owen  75,  142,  161 

Doty,  Lockwood  L.  (on  Indians  during  Am. 

Revolution)  217  ;  (on  Iroquois  intelligence)  291 
Drake,  S.  G.  (Indian  anecdotes)  208,  237 

Dreams  198 

Drunkenness  186,  189 

Duncan,  William  (Indian  benefactor)  294 

Dunn,  Jr.,  J.  P.  229,  252,  276 

Dunraven,  Earl  of  (on  Indian's  inner  life)  153 

EGGLESTON,  Rev.  Edward  129,  161,  192,  213,  242 
Eliot  (apostle  to  the  Indians)  208,  236 

"  Elk  Nation,"  the  44 

Elliott,  H.  W.  (on  Indian  children)  141,  146 

Ellis,  Rev.  Geo.  E.  59,  60,  181,  209,  238 

Emerson,  Mrs.  Ellen  Russell  (Navajo  legend)  97 

Endicott,  Governor  202 

European  duplicity  63,  193,  208,  215,  229 

European  vs  Indian  faiths  88,  235 


309 


3io 


INDEX. 


FESSENDEN,  Mr.  (on  Massasoit)  263 

Fetich  (see  Totem) 

Fires,  Household,  Importance  of  123 

"  Fire  Water  "  (see  Drunkenness) 

Fremont,  Gen.  J.  C.  (on  Columbia  River  Indians)  161 

"  French  and  Indian"  War  205 


GAMES,  Children's 

Garay 

Geronimo  the  Apache 

Glooskap  the  Micmac,  Legend  of 

Gjanganimeo  of  Ohanok 

"  Great  Spirit,"  the 

Gomez,  Estavan 

Government,  United  States,  Responsibility  of 

Gyneocracy  among  Indians  (see  "  Mother  right  ") 


146 

194 
276 
297 
263 
84 
194 
283 


45 


HANGA  (Omaha  benefactor) 

"  Happy  Hunting  Ground,"  the  84 

Hare,  Bishop  249 

Harlow,  Captain  202 
Harrison,  J.  B.  (on  Indian  character)  235  ;  (on  the 

Indian  Problem)  245  ;  (on  white  treatment)  248 

Hawkins,  Captain  John  184 

Ha-won-je-tah  the  Minneconjou  252 

Hirihigua  the  Seminole  196 
"  H.  H."  (see  Jackson,  Mrs.) 
Hiawatha,  Myth  of  45  ;  as  a  personification  50  ; 

Longfellow's  poem  of  49 

Hobbamok  the  Wampanoag  263 
Hodenosaunee  (see  Iroquois) 

Hollister,  Mr.  (anecdote  of  Nanuntenoo)  255 

Holmes,  William  H.  (on  art  in  shells)  165 
Hostilities,  Indian,  Causes  of                                 215,  229 

Howland,  Edward  (on  influence  of  the  soldiers)  223 

Hunt,  Captain  202 

Hunting  161 

Hutch  inson,  Thomas  (on  white  intolerance)  238 

Hypoborean  race  68 


INDIAN,  North  American,  the:  — 

At  discovery  175 

Area  of  possession  at  close  of  Revolution  218 

Babies  138 

Barbarities,  Reasons  for,  147,  217 

Belieis  83,  87,  90 

Best  books  on,  301;  status  of,  283 

Character,  Types  of  279 
Colonial  treatment  of                          202,  207,  216,  238 

A  democrat  214 

Development,  Stages  of  106 

Endurance  of  136 

Enslavement  of  60,  193,  202 

Equality  79,  156 

Estimate  of  246 

European  contact  with  200,214,231 

Government,  a  "  kinship  state  "  75 

Government  autonomic  75 

Hatred  of  Spaniards  184 


INDIAN,  North  American,  the  (continued) 

Hospitality    113;     law  of 

Hostility,  Causes  of  . 

Houses  I20, 

Independence 

Knowledge  of  white  man 

Life  communistic 

Love  of  family 

Love  of  home-land 

Loyalty  to  England 

Migrations  51 

Myths 

Patriotism  196,  197,  229,  251, 

Population  at  discovery    63  ;     race  division  at 
discovery  64, 

Present  population,  Statistics  of 

Property  in  land 

Reception  of  white  man 

Schools 

Spain's  treatment  of  (see  Spain) 

Supremacy,  Probable  duration  of 

Youth  136,  141,  142,  144, 

Indian  problem,  the 
Iroquois  race  (see  Wyandot) 
Iroquois  Agricultural  Society 
Iroquois,  Present  condition  of 
Insh-ta  The-am-ba  ("  Bright  Eyes  ") 
Industries  163,  167, 

Iroquois,  98,  101,  103,  104,  no, 

Im-mut-too-yah-lat-yat  (Joseph)  the   Nez  Perce 

220,  252,  255, 


213 
127 
220 

177 


go 
216 

,  56 
Q3 

267 


71 
287 
211 
115,  181,  212 

284 


40 
152 
280 

288 
2V8 
2*4 
168 
123 


276 


JESUIT  conversion,  the  199,  200 

Junipero  Serro,  Fra  249 

Joseph  the  Nez  Perce  (see  Im-mut-too-yah-lat-yat) 
Jackson,  Mrs.  Helen  Hunt  ("  H.  H.  ")     205,  249,  293 


KATONAH  the  Westchester  Sagamore  276 

Keokuk  the  Fox  276 

Kient-poos  (Captain  Jack)  the  Modoc  223,  276 

"  King  Philip's  War,"  causes  of  220,  236 

Kinship  bond,  the  78,  124,  127 

Kohl,  Johann  (anecdotes)  172,  198 


LAFITAU,  Mons.  (on  wampun)  166 

Land,  Indian  property  in  211 

Land,  Purchase  of,  by  Colonists  239 

Las  Casas  the  Clerigo                                     59,  208,  249 

Lau-le-vva-si-kan  the  Prophet  276 

Lawson,  John  (on  Indian  greed  for  wampum)  165 

Le  Jeune,  Father  (on  Indian  intelligence)  145 

Lewis  and  Clark  (on  Columbia  River  Indians)  165 

Liquor,  Influence  of  on  Indian  nature  186 

"  Long  House  "  of  the  Iroquois  101,  127 

M AHTO-TATONKA  the  Ogallalla  109,  276 

Mah-to-ti-pa  the  Mandan  252 

Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiah  (Black  Hawk)   220,  272,  275 

Man,  Antiquity  of  in  America  15 


INDEX. 


Manabozo,  Myth  of    49;     as  a  personification  51 

Maqua-comon,  the  Pawtuxent  230 

Ma-se-wa-pe-ga  the  Ojibway  186 

Massassoit  the  Wampauog  202,  236,  260,  263,  267 

Ma-ta-oka  (Pocahontas)  172,  263,  264 

Mather,  Rev.  Increase  231 

Mauvila,  Battle  of  185,  276 

McNaughton,  Mr.  (anecdote)  293 

Meals  128,  134 

"  Medicine"  143,  147 

Membertou  the  Algonquin  235 

Mendoza  (on  Indian  patriotism)  197 

Metacomet  ("  King  Philip  ")     105,  202,  211,  260, 

264,  267 

Me-tla-kah-tha  (Indian  colony)  294 

Miantonomah  the  Narragansett  276 

Migrations  of  Indian  races  (see  Indian  migrations) 
Miruelo 

Missionaries,  conduct  of    236 ;     heroism  of 
Moc-peah-lu-tah  (Red  Cloud)  the  Sioux 
Modoc  War  (of  1872) 
Mohawks 
Moki  Confederacy 
Mo-ko-ho-ko  Sacs 
Montezuma  (see  Moteuczoma) 
Moquis  (or  Mokis) 

Morgan,  Lewis  H.      101,  103,  106,  in,  114,  128, 

!6s,  i; 

Moteuczoma  (Aztec  benefactor) 
"  Mother  right,"  the  (see  Woman) 
Mound-builders 


194 
286 

223,  276 
226 

99 
104 
293 

288 

73,  189 

45 

22,  26 


NADAILLAC,  Marquis  de 

Nanuntenoo  the  Narragansett 

Narvaez 

Natchez 

Navajos 

Navajo  War  (of  1858) 

Nez  Perce  War  (of  1876) 

OGANASDODA  the  Cherokee 

Oglethorpe,  James  E. 

Ojibways 

Ojeda 

Omahas 

Oneidas 

Onondagas 

Oregon  massacres  (of  1855) 

Osceola  (see  Asseola) 

Ortiz,  Juan 


255 

194 

142,  150,  163 

287 

226 

229,  250 


71,  276 

232,  236,  287 

187,   198 

I78 

153,  171 

99 

99 

225 

263 


PARKMAN,  Francis  A.        84,  89,  95,  98,  too, 

log,    113,    194,  200,  220,  223,  256,  268 

Pawnee  race  (see  Shoshone) 

Pequots     197;     war  with,  202 

Pe-ta-le-shar-ro  the  Pawnee  252 

"  Philip,  King  "  (see  Metacomet) 

Phillips,  Wendell  (on  Indian  patriotism) 

Pidgeon,  William  (Story  of  "  Elk  Nation  ") 

Pocahontas  (see  Ma-ta-oka) 


251 

44 


Polygamy  125 

Pontiac  the  Ottawa  105,  219,  223,  267,  268;  con 
spiracy  of,  219,  220,  224 
Popham's  Colony  202 
Po-shai-an-kia  (Zuni  benefactor)  45 
Powell,  Maj.  J.  W.                                   72,  134,  169,  188 
Powers,  Stephen  (on  equality  of  Indian  women)       156 
Powhatan  (see  Wa-bun-so-na-cook) 
Pueblo-dwellers                                                                    30 
Pueblo  race  71 
Pueblo  War  (of  1847)                                                      225 


QUIGUALTANQUI  the  Chickasaw 


197,  252 


RAMIREZ  (on  the  war  spirit)  130 

Red  Cloud  (see  Moc-peah-lu-tah) 

Red  Jacket  (see  Sa-go-ye-wat-ha) 

Religion  (see  Indian  beliefs) 

Reservation,  Indian,  Plan  of    241 ;  statistics  of        242 

Reticence  as  to  name  172 

Rolfe,  John  264 

SA-GO-YE-WAT-HA  (Red  Jacket)  the  Seneca 

159,  191,  237,  267,  272 

Scalp-taking,  Significance  of  150 

Schoolcraft,  Henry  R.  49,  76,  130,  173 

Schools  (see  Indian  schools) 

Seminole  War  (of  1835)  224 

Senecas  99,  135,  137,  171 

Sequoyah,  the  Cherokee  276 

Shell  money  (see  Wampum) 

Sherman,  Genl.  W.  T.  (on  Nez  Perce  war)  250 

Shoshone  race  71 

Sioux  wars (of  1854) 225  ;  (of  1862) 226 ;  (of  1866) 

226  ;  (of  1876)  229 

Sitting  Bull  the  Ogallalla  230,  276 

"  Six  Nations,"  the  (see  Iroquois) 

Smith,  Erminie  A.  45,  84 

Smith,  Captain  John  12,  202,  263 

Spain's  treatment  of  the  Indian  60,  194,  207 

Spotted  Tail  the  Sioux  276 

Sprague,  Charles  (ode)  209 

Stoddard,  Rev.  Samuel  (on  the  need  of  retalia 
tion) 
Sully,  General  (on  Blackfeet  war)  226 

TA-RHU-HIA-WA-KU  the  sky-holder,  Legend 

of  it 

Tomahawk  a  white  man's  creation  161 

Tomo-chi-chi  the  Cherokee  263 

Totem,  the    93,96;  Zuni  legend  of  92 
Tecumseh  (see  Te-cum-the) 
Te-cum-the  the  Shawanoe      112,  220,  271;  war 

with.  224 
Tha-yen-da-ne-gea  (Brant)                     101,  217,  268,  271 

Thegiha  Union,  the  104 

Thlinkeet  race  68 

Thwing,  Charles  F.  (on  Indian  progress)  286 

Tiele,  Prof.  C.  P.  (on  primitive  worship)  38 


3I2 


INDEX. 


Treaty  of  Fort  Stanwix  218 

Tribal  divisions  78 

Tsimsheans,  Canadian  treatment  of  294 

Turner,  Mr.  132,  188,  189 

Tuscaloosa  the  Chickasaw  .  196 

Tuscaroras  99 


VAN  TWILLER,  Wouter  206 

Velasquez  183,  194 

Verrazano  183 

Vespucci  178 

Village  Indians  30,  122 


UCITA  the  Sachem,  Daughter  of  263 

Uncas  the  Mohican  236 

Utes  292, 295 

WA-BUN-SO-NA-COOK  (Powhatan)  236,  276 

Wadsworth,  Gen.  James  (on  Indian  citizenship)      249 


Waldron,  Major  (anecdote)  208 

Wampum  ^4,  167 

Warfare  129,  147,  149,  151,  2=19;  Philosophy  of,        130 
Washington,  George,  Foresight  of  219 

We-ta-moo  of  Pocasset  159,  276 

Weymouth,  Captain  202 

Whittlesey,  Charles  (on  Treaty  of  Fort  Stanwix)       218 
Wilkie,  F.  B.  (on  Colonial  aggression) 
Wilson,  Robert  A.,  denies  story  of  the  Conquest 

of  Mexico 
Winslow,  John 
Wollaston 

Woman,  Importance  of  123,  129,  156 

Wood,  William  (on  influence  of  liquor) 
Worship  (see  Indian  beliefs) 

Wright,  Rev.  Ashur  (on  woman's  supremacy)  124 

Wyandot-Iroquois  race  67 


240 

29 

263 

202 

59,  160 

187 


YAKAMAS 

Young,  Charles  S.  (on  Indian  progress) 
Yuma  race 


294 

291 

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